Knife Advice

[piercehawkeye45]

Well...to give a small amount of background on my situation, I live in a tougher neighborhood that has gotten worse in the past few months and a few events in the past month have led me to consider purchasing some kind of knife for protection in case the worse happens and I need to protect myself.

I would like to know what would be the best purchase and how I would go around doing this. As of now, I am thinking of getting a switchblade or something similar because I don't want to have an open blade lying around my room (I do not plan on carrying it outside with me) and I do not want to spend a large amount of money (under $100 for sure, under $50 preferable) because I do not have the funds.

So any recommendations on what type of knife I should get, where I should get one (I was thinking of a gun store but I'm not sure), legality, and any other advise?