The BLADE Blogs

The Antique Bowie Knife Association (ABKA) will hold its annual meeting on November 20 & 21 in conjunction with the civil war show held at the Richmond Raceway Complex, 600 East Laburnaum Ave., Richmond, VA 23222. Public hours are Sat 9-5 and Sun 9-3. Dealer setup is Friday, Nov 19, noon to 7 pm. For more information you can go to the promotors website… www.mkshows.com

Ethan Peterson, 13-year-old Junior Bassmaster State Tournament and Western Divisional Championship winner, now has the support of Buck Knives to help him get to the Junior Bassmaster World Championship tournament in Shreveport, Louisiana this October.

Peterson fishes for the North Idaho Junior Bass Anglers, and he will tell you his favorite activity is fishing. He’s in 8th grade at Woodland Middle School in Post Falls, Idaho where his teachers support his tournaments whenever possible. In 2008 he won 2nd place at the FLW State Championship tournament and during the following summer he qualified for state to fish in the Junior Bassmaster State Championship. He took 1st place in the 11-14 age group at this tournament. After the State Championship, Peterson then won the Western Divisional Championship tournament at Lake Martinez, AZ.

Peterson is excited for the opportunity to fish in the World Championship tournament where the grand prize is a Triton bass boat and a $5,000 scholarship. “My goal is to someday earn a bass fishing scholarship to help pay my way through college. I spend every minute I can on the water practicing for what I like to do best,” he said.

Buck Knives is proud to support Peterson and hopes he wins the Junior World Championship. He was presented a check from Buck Knives to help with the expenses related to traveling to Louisiana in October for the tournament. “I received Ethan’s letter asking for support and was excited for the chance to help him,” said Chuck Buck, Chairman/Owner of Buck Knives. “Ethan is an upstanding young gentleman who is goal driven with the talents to achieve his goals. I wish him the best of luck at the World Championships and hope he continues to build upon his bass fishing career,” said Buck.

In 2009 Buck Knives became an official sponsor of Bill Lowen, a professional angler on the Bassmaster Elite Series. Lowen recently surprised Peterson with a phone call and encouraged him for the upcoming World Championship. Lowen finished the 2010 Elite Series in 20th place and has qualified for the 2011 Bassmaster Classic also in Louisiana.

Peterson and his parents are grateful to all their sponsors and supporters and are excited to have Buck Knives be part of their team.

The American Bladesmith Society has a Forum that you can read. It features many educational tips for the knife maker and details of upcoming ABS hammer-ins and events.

http://www.americanbladesmith.com

www.palehorsefighters.blogspot.com

Granger Knives and Pale Horse Fighters
Thank you for your intrest!

I don’t know if any of you have heard, but Manhattan, New York, DA Cyrus Vance is writing his own version of the law concerning gravity knives. He has included box cutters and lockbacks in the definition, which not only is patently false but irresponsibility bordering on the criminal. His recent (June 17) “investigation” of retail knife stores in Manhattan resulted in scores of knives being confiscated from 14 retail locations and the “offending” stores were forced to pay $1.9 million in fines and participate in a campaign educating consumers on “illegal” knives or else face prosecution. And now he is going after e-tailers outside of Manhattan who sell “illegal” knives to Manhattan residents.

Vance is a menace and must be stopped! Contact anyone and everyone you know in Manhattan and tell them to get this clown out of office. Also, contact KnifeRights.org and AKTI.org and join the pro-knife fight.

If Vance can do this, DAs in other jurisdictions can, too–maybe even yours!

From Knife Rights

The June 28 decision by the Supreme Court in McDonald v. Chicago incorporating the Second Amendment to the states is an important victory in the fight to protect the individual right to keep and bear arms. Congratulations are in order to the Second Amendment Foundation, who was the prime sponsor of the effort on behalf of the litigants, to attorney Alan Gura who developed the case and the strategy and then along with the NRA argued the case before the court, and to all who submitted supporting briefs.

From the perspective of knife owners, this decision, like Heller before it, includes a reference to knives in support of the majority opinion. In this case, it is reference to the abrogation by states of the civil rights of African Americans after the Civil War, prohibiting their possession of a number of named arms, including “dirk or bowie knife.”

There is no question that this decision gives those of us fighting for our knife rights another arrow in our quiver, one with a nice sharp point. It sets the stage for further advancements via both legislation and the courts. With the Second Amendment confirmed now as both an individual right and the law of the land, it becomes easier to make the argument in legislatures and elsewhere to remove unreasonable restrictions on knives. The key issue is the term “reasonable.”

The court made it very clear that the decision does not eradicate all laws restricting firearms in particular, or by implication, all arms, including knives, in general. What is reasonable and what is not will be decided over the next few years by court cases challenging the inevitable tidal wave of restrictive regulations that will be implemented by those who remain opposed to freedom and self-defense.

Some of those cases will inevitably end up back at the Supreme Court. A single swing vote on the Supreme Court could wipe away these gains and could essentially gut the Second Amendment, individual right and incorporated as it now is. Think about that when you vote for your Senators and President.

With this decision we are better armed for the fight for our knife rights, but it does not settle many of the real issues regarding knife sale, ownership, purchase and carry that we deal with daily. It will still be a hard slog through the legislature and the courts to determine what is reasonable and what is not.

You can read the complete decision here: www.KnifeRights.org/mcdonaldopinion08-1521.pdf