Editing Switchblade (section)

====1970-2000====
By the late 1960s, new production of switchblades in the United States was largely limited to military contract automatic knives such as the MC-1.<ref name="ME"/>

In Italy, switchblades known among collectors as "Transitionals" were made with a mix of modern parts and leftover old style parts.<ref name="ZF"/>

Switchblade knives continued to be sold and collected in those states in which possession remained legal. In the 1980s, automatic knife imports to the U.S. resumed with the concept of kit knives, allowing the user to assemble a working switchblade from a parts kit with the addition of a mainspring or other key part (often sold separately). Since no law prohibited importation of switchblade parts or unassembled kits, all risk of prosecution was assumed by the assembling purchaser, not the importer. This loophole was eventually closed by new federal regulations.<ref>U.S. 19 CFR 12.95 (1990) ''Definitions'': ''A 'switchblade knife' means any imported knife, or components thereof, or any class of imported knife...which has one or more of the following characteristics or identities: (3) Unassembled knife kits or knife handles without blades which, when fully assembled with added blades, springs, or other parts, are knives which open automatically by hand pressure applied to a button or device in the handle of the knife or by operation of inertia, gravity, or both.''</ref>