A ballistic knife is a specialized combat knife with a detachable, self-propelled blade that can be ejected to a distance of several meters by pressing a trigger or operating a lever or switch on the handle. Originally developed as a weapon for Soviet and Eastern Bloc military special forces, the ballistic knife was not adopted by the military forces of other nations. Spring-powered ballistic knives briefly gained notoriety in the United States in the mid-1980s after commercial examples were marketed and sold in the United States and other Western countries. Since then, the marketing and/or sale of ballistic knives to civilians has been restricted or prohibited by law in several countries.
Read more about Ballistic Knife: History and Usage, Legality in The United Kingdom
Famous quotes containing the word knife:
“Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
To cry, “Hold, hold!””
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)