Mr. Wayne L. Parker

*1 Attorney General Bill Allain has received your letter of July 8, 1982, and has assigned it to me for reply. In your letter you state:

*1 Most of your questions concerning weapons are ones concerning questions of fact and not law. Any weapon can be concealed, but it is a crime to conceal it only if it is a deadly weapon within the prohibition of 97-37-1 of the Mississippi Code, Annotated, 1972.

*1 Whether a weapon is deadly is a question of fact and the fact that a weapon is not specifically mentioned in the statute does not automatically exclude it as a deadly weapon. State v. Sims, 80 Miss. 381, 31 So. 907 (1902). Thus, the deadliness for a weapon is determined by the facts of each case. On weapons not specifically mentioned in the statute, we cannot rule if carrying it concealed would be a crime. For example: A razor has been held not to be a deadly weapon within Section 97-37-1. Brown v. State, 105 Miss. 367, 62 So. 353 (1913).

*1 It does not matter under our statute if a knife is a fixed blade or capable of being folded or unfolded and locked; it is whether it falls within the description of deadly weapons in Section 97-37-1 that matters. There is no one definition of “deadly weapon.” Common sense would tell most of us that a straight razor is deadly, yet our courts have ruled it is not. Because of this case by case approach, we cannot render a definition of deadly weapons.

*1 It is a violation for a deadly weapon to be carried concealed in whole or in part and a partially concealed weapon is concealed for the purposes of Section 97-37-1. Reed v. State, 199 So.2d 803 (Miss. 1967).

*1 We are not aware of any United States Supreme Court decision on a felon carrying a pocket knife, lock blade or hunting knife.

*1 Wishing we could have been of more service to you, I am