State v. Nick R‪.‬

{1} Petitioner Nick R., a sixteen-year-old student at Taos High School, was charged in Childrens Court with possessing a deadly weapon on school premises, in violation of NMSA 1978, Section 30-7-2.1 (1994). The issue before us is whether the Legislature intended to make an ordinary pocketknife a per se deadly weapon in the Criminal Codes statutory definitions, without regard to either its actual use or a persons purpose for carrying it, and thereby preclude any right to a jury determination of its status as a deadly weapon in the circumstances of a particular case.