Texas lawmakers are considering a bill that would legalize switchblade knives.

Across the country, knife rights advocates are portraying their cause as a Second Amendment issue. New federal rules will allow pocketknives on airplanes. And similar switchblade bills are making progress in Tennessee, Kansas, Indiana and Alaska.

But the author of the Texas bill says he wants to make a different point about gun control.

Rep. Harold Dutton, a Democrat from Houston, says only dangerous weapons should be prohibited.

His staff prepared an analysis of the bill noting that switchblades are banned while assault rifles are not.