Ok.Yet wordings and definitions are important. What constitutes a spring, and what assist?
Assist upon opening? Assist in keeping it closed?
And this is the real killer ---
I've seen police try to claim that the locking mechanism on a locking-when-open knife (which is a safety feature, btw) was a "spring", going so far as to focus upon the last rounded portion that the heel of the blade rather 'cams over' the mating surface of the the metal of the lock.
That the lock is pushed back while the blade is moving towards fixed position, then "springs" as it were back flush with the handle --- was the gist of the argument which police have attempted to make in courtrooms at various times and places throughout the nation.
They have little to lose in abusing the laws in such ways, other than to risk irritating a judge. Even if the argument fails, then they can proclaim innocence (as for false arrest) for reason that they (the police) then say they were innocently misinterpreting the laws as those are written.
We may be able to know that the arrest report states that the knife in question was illegal-- in other words the report says it was, but we have yet to know if in fact it was.
Well the investigative team that has evaluated the knife has determined it was illegal.