US proposed knife ban could include any one hand opening knives

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I just received an email alert from a US knife manufacturer regarding this idiocy, what follows is from said email...


....U.S. Customs proposes to bypass Congress and expand the switchblade definition to include all knives that open with one hand. These include multi-tools, traditional pocket knives, one-hand openers, as well as assisted-openers.

Statistics to consider about the knife industry and the possible effects of this ruling:

* U.S. Sporting Knife Industry has a $5.9 Billion Economic Impact on U.S. Economy
* 3,881 direct U.S. Employees at 61 Companies
* 35.6 Million Households Own Pocket Knives; 24.8 Million Own Hunting Knives
* Assisted-opening and one-hand-opening knives are 80 % of All Knives Sold
* 30-40 Million Public Safety, Non-Issue Military, Construction, Recreational Users


Material compiled and provided by AKTI​


The majority of Americans who carry and use one-hand-openers every day need them for their jobs. They use them to save lives as well as for scores of recreational activities.

If U.S. Customs succeeds, it could lead to effectively banning all folding knives from interstate commerce.



........emphasis added by me.
 
Beamhead said:
I just received an email alert from a US knife manufacturer regarding this idiocy, what follows is from said email...


....U.S. Customs proposes to bypass Congress and expand the switchblade definition to include all knives that open with one hand. These include multi-tools, traditional pocket knives, one-hand openers, as well as assisted-openers.

Statistics to consider about the knife industry and the possible effects of this ruling:

* U.S. Sporting Knife Industry has a $5.9 Billion Economic Impact on U.S. Economy
* 3,881 direct U.S. Employees at 61 Companies
* 35.6 Million Households Own Pocket Knives; 24.8 Million Own Hunting Knives
* Assisted-opening and one-hand-opening knives are 80 % of All Knives Sold
* 30-40 Million Public Safety, Non-Issue Military, Construction, Recreational Users


Material compiled and provided by AKTI​


The majority of Americans who carry and use one-hand-openers every day need them for their jobs. They use them to save lives as well as for scores of recreational activities.

If U.S. Customs succeeds, it could lead to effectively banning all folding knives from interstate commerce.



........emphasis added by me.
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Beam,

This is really beyond belief! I went to the link in the first post and caught a reference to the proposed bill for Hawaii. I quote:

..Any person who knowingly manufactures, sells, transfers, possesses, or transports a pocket knife in the State shall be guilty of a misdemeanor....
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Well if this law passes then I am automatically a criminal I guess. 🙄 :banghead:

Reading further, it becomes clear that the senator who wrote the bill does not personally support it nor does he feel that it would ever actually come to a vote. He wrote it at the request of one of his constituents. Politics! :ohgeez:

If a constituent wanted a law passed that would outlaw pink bowties, would the senator keep his voter happy and write such a law? :duh2:

I suppose if by some unseen miracle, all of the existing pocket knives were somehow removed from the population, law abiding citizen and criminal, the criminal would just give it up? What if instead they opted to carry cordless chainsaws and gas powered nail guns? I guess I should get one each of these, before they are not allowed....
 
McGizmo said:
If a constituent wanted a law passed that would outlaw pink bowties, would the senator keep his voter happy and write such a law? :duh2:
Click to expand...

Now you know he would... If the constitent was rich enough to donate several hundreds of thousands of dollars to the senator's re-election fund.

That's what politics boils down to.

If the senator at least believed in it, that would show some integrity on his part. Rather than his puppet-master... er, I mean "constituent;" wanting such a bill to be proposed.
 
McGizmo said:
Beam,

This is really beyond belief! I went to the link in the first post and caught a reference to the proposed bill for Hawaii. I quote:

Well if this law passes then I am automatically a criminal I guess. 🙄 :banghead:

Reading further, it becomes clear that the senator who wrote the bill does not personally support it nor does he feel that it would ever actually come to a vote. He wrote it at the request of one of his constituents. Politics! :ohgeez:
Click to expand...
I am surprised you have not yet heard of your states proposed ban. I can accept a law being passed by elected officials of whom answer in some way directly to the body politic but this insidious redefinition of a regulation by a bureaucrat(s) is beyond the pale.

I thought pink bow-ties were banned already.:tinfoil:

EDIT: I just found and read the senator's response and I will give him a small amount of benefit as it appears he has written bills as a courtesy to constituents with no intent of ever supporting them many times prior.
It does look goofy at a minimum though, perhaps you should ask him to write a bill banning political parties as a courtesy to you, being a constituent and all. SB5150 or is it BS5150 the McGizmo political party ban act of 2009, just think of the email alerts that would generate. :devil:
 
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The danger with this ruling is that since the Customs is a federal agency, state and local agencies will use it as a ruling precedent to make patch work of bans and regulations. There doesn't have to be a federal ban, state bans are just as effective as federal bans to law-abiding people.

The Customs just denied an extension to the June 21st date so looks like they already made up their mind on this issue.

And sorry to see how Off Topic Jay R has taken this thread.
 
270winchester said:
And sorry to see how Off Topic Jay R has taken this thread.
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Hey ! Fairs fair, it takes two to Tango.

TITAN1833 said:
Interestingly the kitchen knife is about to change, soon they will no longer be pointed look here
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Strangely enough I saw this just before logging onto CPF and was going to post the same link myself.

The anti stab kitchen knife eh? How long do you think that the same design will become compulsory on folding knives? Come to think of it, the file on my Leatherman has a similar shaped end. All they would have to do would be to make the blade from the same mould and sharpen the straight side.

Now I hate living in a Nanny state (UK) and because of that I would certainly disapprove if they tried to make it law that all kitchen knives had to be constructed like that. On the other hand, if it were to work just as well as a normal kitchen knife ( and having been a chef for 7 years in the past, I’d want to try it for myself ) I have to consider, if it does work as well, why not make it law? In the long run, it doesn’t do anyone any harm and it saves lives.
I see it the same as compulsory seatbelts, sure people complained about the loss of liberties, rights and freedom to choose but 20 years later most people think it was a great idea and wondered why we didn’t do it earlier.
 
I just skimmed the text of this revocation of prior rulings at CBP.gov. Fascinating look into the legal/bureaucratic mind when dealing with something as real as use of a blade against another person.

Anybody closer to the situation might reference crime reports, emergency room doctors, autopsy results, and tactical experts in the matter of attacks using sharp weapons.

The proposed ruling, by comparison, makes numerous trips to the dictionary and prior legal text. The author seems to assume that once the item is defined as a switchblade, that it is therefore a weapon of the criminal exclusively. Those who have some logic training are aware there is a fallacy and could probably name it. I just know that not all switchblades are weapons, and not all weapons are the exclusive tools of criminals--most are not.

It is pretty clear to me that CBP ("Customs") is extending the term "switchblade" to include spring assisted opening knives, not all one hand opening knives. That would be most of them, nowadays (The 80% figure? I can believe it.) CBP doesn't have that kind of juice, even if they did want to ban all one handed knives which I doubt.

I do believe that CBP is technically correct, that AO's are switchblades and therefore illegal. But, I think the law is flawed in banning a class of personal defense weapons to all persons. Knives are particularly suited to women/girls defending themselves against rape/murder.

California has even more restrictive laws in regards to knives, so it's nothing new here.
 
Something else that hasn’t been considered yet. We are all here, you must admit, men who like their gadgets and we therefore have a somewhat biased opinion about a possible law stating that we aren’t allowed to carry a locking knife without good reason. ( And remember, that’s not what this law is.)
On the other hand, I suspect that if you were to go up to an average person in the street, especially a woman, and suggest a law that bans people from carrying flick knives in public, they would probably be quite happy about it.
As we already have that law in England, it is purely guesswork on my part that most female and many male US citizens would look favourably on such a law so I leave it to you to decide if the last paragraph a fair statement.
 
Jay R said:

Hey ! Fairs fair, it takes two to Tango.


Strangely enough I saw this just before logging onto CPF and was going to post the same link myself.

The anti stab kitchen knife eh? How long do you think that the same design will become compulsory on folding knives? Come to think of it, the file on my Leatherman has a similar shaped end. All they would have to do would be to make the blade from the same mould and sharpen the straight side.

Now I hate living in a Nanny state (UK) and because of that I would certainly disapprove if they tried to make it law that all kitchen knives had to be constructed like that. On the other hand, if it were to work just as well as a normal kitchen knife ( and having been a chef for 7 years in the past, I’d want to try it for myself ) I have to consider, if it does work as well, why not make it law? In the long run, it doesn’t do anyone any harm and it saves lives.
I see it the same as compulsory seatbelts, sure people complained about the loss of liberties, rights and freedom to choose but 20 years later most people think it was a great idea and wondered why we didn’t do it earlier.
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Well I doubt those hell bent on doing harm would buy them let alone give up what they already own,so for me that knife is a gimmick IMHO and why would any law abiding citizen want one after all we as law abiding are safe with any knife,yet it seems we cannot choose for ourselves any more :thumbsdow

So if they did outlaw the common kitchen knife,then my views on the knife laws of this country would further recede LOL that's low enough already 🙁
 
Jay R said:
.... On the other hand, if it were to work just as well as a normal kitchen knife ( and having been a chef for 7 years in the past, I’d want to try it for myself ) I have to consider, if it does work as well, why not make it law? In the long run, it doesn’t do anyone any harm and it saves lives.....
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If if does work well then it will be accepted on it own merits and no need for a law!?!? I too see some merit to such a knife design in many applications but not in consideration that it would be a less effective weapon in my kitchen!?!

Now I could see the cutlery industry get behind such a law because the implications are that there would be a whole new mandatory market and boon to sales as every household turns in their illegal knives and goes about buying replacements.
 
It seems SOG tools are getting worried also.I relieved an email today asking for support hmmm! looks like the US is going to follow the UK ruling very,very bad news 🙁
 
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