Article: https://tg.la7.it/cronaca/bolzano-coltelli-stampante-3d-a-scuola-denunciato-minore-26-01-2026-251562
Local student arrested for ‘manufacturing weapons.’ In reality, he printed some PLA shivs that would probably shatter if they hit a piece of parmesan cheese. The police seized the printer like it was a meth lab. 10/10 for the dramatic crime scene photo, though.
(Backstory: a few weeks ago a student in another city/school was stabbed with a (iron) knife and died so now politicians need to show that zero tolerance policies are successful.)
I don’t get it, are knives illegal in Italy? What if I want to cut my spaghetti?
This is the really weird thing. If these knives were made of metal and in a kitchen drawer, nobody would think of them as being weapons. But since they are 3d printed, that’s novel enough to warrant some panic or something…
It’s not because they are 3d printed. He was distributing them at school! That is the problem.
If he were to file down toothbrushes and do the same he would still be arrested and his files confiscated.
Not sure how rules are in Italy, but where I live “switchblades” and other one-hand operated collapsible knives are illegal.
Afaik, all single hand operation deployment knives are illegal in Italy. It’s somewhat of a nonsensical rule when there are teenagers stabbing themselves with kitchen knives, but still…
You can make surprisingly sharp objects, I once cut myself with my printed bed-scraper by accident.
These printed knives can absolutely also be used to hurt/kill someone, if you wanted to…like all type of knives and basic cutlery really…these being an illegal type is the trigger here I believe.
Of course, I never intended to imply that a plastic knife would not be dangerous
Auto-translate is saying ‘snap knife’, but I’d imagine it’s to do with it being deployable / spring loaded in some way.
Spring assisted switchblades are illegal in quite a few countries, so I imagine they are in Italy as well. Still completely ridiculous, as these are plastic toy replicas, and not actual knives.
I’m pretty sure 30 years ago they were legal in Italy but maybe not OTF, out the front. That seems to often be an important legal distinction.
Afaik, all one hand operation deployment knives are illegal to carry in Italy. Ballisongs/butterfly knives included.
I’m not sure if there are special licenses that would allow you to carry them.
I don’t know the knife laws in Italy, especially not for the specific part of Italy this occurred in
But often laws about switchblades and such have to do with carrying them, or occasionally selling them, but often just owning a switchblade and keeping it at home isn’t really an issue
As far as manufacturing, I again don’t know about the specific regulations, if there’s maybe any kind of licensing or something needed, but I know for a fact that it is either not totally illegal to manufacture a switchblade in Italy, or they are *very * selectively enforcing those laws because there are some very well-known manufacturers of them based there (if I had more disposable income I’ve had my eye on a Frank Beltrame stiletto for a while)
most of those classic stiletto switchblades are manufactured in italy
Often even unassisted switchblades are illegal. They’re called gravity knives.
Like butterfly knives, many places in the us too. Ny for instance, cops are taught to flick knives open to be able to charge for knives no reasonable person would think fit the gravity description I read once.
Just to be pedantic, gravity knives aren’t switchblades.
They have a blade that slides freely (and under the force of gravity.) the grip is basically a hinged nutcracker that, when closed, traps the sliding blade either deployed or retracted.
In any case, they’re no more dangerous than your standard folding knives of the same general proportions.
The illegality of certain knives (switch blades, gravity knives, balisongs, etc) are largely not based on the danger or actual use of those knives as weapons.
In the US it’s usually reactionary and racism.
Gravity knives are considered switchblades in many jurisdictions.They aren’t spring assisted switchblades. They are gravity assisted hence the name. Switchblade just means any knife you open with a switch or button. Don’t take my word for it though, go read the first line of the wikipedia page on switchblades.
Often they are less dangerous since they can fail to deploy (especially an OTF spring assisted switchblade). I had a sweet benchmade switchblade when I was in the army but alas it got lost at some point. That knife was the best for one handed box cutting.
maybe instead go to the wikipedia page for ‘Gravity Knife’
or just read my comment more fully. Gravity knives don’t have switches. or buttons. If you’re considering the hinge mechanism that allows a gravity knife to operate, then practically any folder is a “switch blade” and that’s just not true.
from the wiki I linked:
Even in gravity knives that appear to be opened by a switch or buttons… all that button is doing is unlocking the blade to allow it to be deployed or retracted. If simply having a button or switch or something is all it takes to be a switchblade, then this classic gem would also be a switchblade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchblade
Like I said, many jurisdictions consider gravity knives to be switchblades.
and many jurisdictions have laws written by people who don’t have a frooking clue and are simply reacting to a knife being associated with whatever out-group happens to exist at the time.
What does that have to do with the price of tea in china?
My original comment said gravity knives are considered switchblades in many jurisdictions. Politicians being morons doesn’t change that fact.
In the US knives sales just cut into gun sales so best to put some limits on them. I don’t doubt that it may somehow play a part, but I am curious how racism plays in here?
So, I’m going to preface this with a quick reminder that once deployed, a folding knife is going to cause the same kind of wounds as a fixed bladed of similar size and shape. and example for this is the Benchmade Adamas family. They have a folding knife, an auto-opening folding knife and a paracord wrapped skeleton-grip (with paracord,) fixed bladed knife.
Once deployed, the knives are all going to do about the same in a fight. And the two folding knives- the auto, and the manual knife- are going to function basically identically. In Minnesota, the only one of these that’s illegal to carry is the auto. The only reason that’s illegal to carry is because of perception. (the same perception as switchblades.) There’s no practical reason that auto-opening knives are any more likely to be used in some kind of crime than manual-opening folders.
Back in the early fifties, switchblades were frequently used by youth gangs (west side story, for example,) or rough-and-tumble types (especially in cowboy or war movies,) as a sort of visual code to indicate they were of rather dubious character. eventually that became associated with black guys being villains, because hollywood never met a trope it didn’t like. even when the villain was white, or whatever, that was broadly overlooked by popular culture.
It was outlawed in '58 largely because people perceived it at the weapon of choice by black men. it had nothing to do at all with knives themselves being particularly dangerous. or even all that common, really.
the same is true of asian martial arts movies and balisongs. (which is ridiculous. the only thing a bali should be used for is as a slightly more exciting fidgit spinner. Sorry.)
Or brass knuckles (relating to the italian mafia and irish mob. hollywood gave those to the enforcers.)
This isn’t to say that maybe knives and brass knuckles and things shouldn’t be regulated. But outside of “Knives larger than x length”, and the occasional feature like double edges or spear points (Which are bad for general use, and usually purely for a weapon, not a tool); there’s always some other reason for it being outlawed… and generally that reason is that “the wrong people” are using them.