Countywide : Business Settles Suit Over Weapons Sales

An Irvine business has agreed to stop selling belt buckle knives and “cane swords” and to pay $7,500 in costs and civil penalties in the wake of a consumer protection lawsuit filed against it by the Orange County district attorney’s office, prosecutors said Friday.

Without admitting liability, the company, Ken Nolan Inc. and its president, William C. Warren, agreed to resolve the lawsuit that was filed Thursday, according to a statement released by the district attorney’s office. The lawsuit contended that the sale of the items by Nolan violated state law prohibiting the sale of such concealed weapons.

Officials at the company could not be reached for comment Friday evening.

The lawsuit defined a belt buckle knife as a knife that is “made an integral part of a belt buckle and consists of a blade with a length of at least 2 1/2 inches.” A cane sword was defined as a “cane, swagger stick, stick, staff, rod, pole, umbrella or similar device having concealed within it a blade that may be used as a sword or stiletto.”