Knife News Wire

Those traveling to the BLADE Show through Georgia need Knife Law Preemption to be passed to protect them from a patchwork of inconsistent knife laws from one jurisdiction to another in the state. Here, Busse knife fans are all eyes at the Busse booth during last year’s BLADE Show.

According to Knife Rights, the Georgia House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee has been assigned  SB432, the Knife Law Preemption bill that would repeal all local knife ordinances more restrictive than state law. The committee will consider SB432 in the coming days.

       If you are a Georgia resident it is vital that you call the committee members.    

      If you are a BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com) attendee from outside of Georgia, then you need to email and/or call ALL of the committee members (listed below) and ask them to vote YES on SB432.  

    Once again, we need your help to get this bill passed. Your calls and emails made a big impact in the Georgia Senate when they passed the bill last week. Now, please call or email and ask the members of the committee to vote YES on SB432 when it is before them for consideration.   

    In your email or when you talk to each representative’s secretary, tell him or her that that you are a BLADE Show attendee or exhibitor and that the BLADE Show represents MILLIONS of dollars to the Georgia economy. It also represents many hundreds of JOBS in Georgia. All those hotels and restaurants we stay at and eat in during BLADE Show employ many hundreds of people and SB432 will help support the BLADE Show! You deserve to not have to worry about local knife restrictions when traveling to and attending the BLADE Show, and even a single unjustified and highly publicized arrest could adversely affect BLADE Show attendance!

    Use Email SUBJECT: Please Vote Yes on SB432. 

Ann Purcell – Chairman Dist 159 – [email protected] Phone: 404-656-5139

Willie Talton – Vice Chairman Dist 145 – [email protected] Phone: 404-656-5116

Bob Hanner – Dist 148 – [email protected]  Phone: 404-656-7859

Bill Maddox – Dist 127 – [email protected]  Phone: 404-656-3947

Jay Neal – Dist 1 – [email protected] Phone: 404-656-5138  

Billy Horne – Dist 71 – [email protected] Phone: 404-656-0287

Scott Holcomb – Dist 82 – [email protected] Phone: 404-656-6372  

Gloria Frazier  -Dist 123 – [email protected]  Phone: 404-656-0265

Kevin Cooke  -Dist 18 – [email protected] Phone: 404-656-0325  

Darlene Taylor – Dist 173 – [email protected] Phone: 404-656- 0177

Yasmin Neal  -Dist 75 – [email protected] Phone: 404-656-0265  

Doug Collins  -Dist 27 – [email protected] Phone: 404-656-7737

Tim Bearden  -Dist 68 – [email protected] Phone: 404-656-0287

    Knife Law Preemption protects honest citizens from a patchwork of local ordinances and rules that can entrap those traveling within or through a state in possession of knives that meet state law or wherever they live in the state. A person can be charged with a violation of law when they have no intention of violating the law.

    For more information, click on www.KnifeRights.org.

For more on the latest knives, knife legislation, knifemaking instruction, knife trends, knifemakers, what knives to buy and where and much more, subscribe to BLADE Magazine, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication. For subscription information click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscripti…?r+ssfb031512#BL1SU.

A bill designed to expand switchblade/automatic manufacture and carry, and to exclude one-hand-opening knives—an example of the latter, the Vulcan from SOG Specialty Knives shown above—from the Washington state definition of switchblade passed the state senate March 2.

    According to the American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI), HB 2347 is headed to the governor’s desk and should be effective around June 1. AKTI’s Jan Billeb stated that Mike Vellekamp of Fox Knives USA did a great job spearheading the effort to expand switchblade/automatic manufacture and carry in Washington state.

    Meanwhile, clarifying the definition of switchblade/automatic knife (or spring-blade knife as it is known in Washington) is important to protect the rights of the individual knife owner. It eliminates potential misinterpretation about the legality of one-handed and assisted-opening knives that can result in inconsistent and wrongful conviction of individuals for owning or carrying a knife that is a valuable and potentially life-saving tool.

    AKTI advisory member Spencer Frazer, founder of SOG Specialty Knives & Tools, testified at the state house judiciary committee hearing the same day in support of HB 2347. “The definition of switchblade needs to be clarified, and this bill does that,” he commented regarding changes to Sec. 1 RCW 9.41 that includes “a knife that contains a spring, detent, or other mechanism designed to create a bias toward closure of the blade and that requires physical exertion applied to the blade by hand, wrist or arm to overcome the bias toward closure to assist in opening the knife is not a spring blade knife.” This is the same “bias toward closure” language that AKTI introduced and has been successfully passed in other states and incorporated in to the 2009 amendment to the Federal Switchblade Act.

     Senator Kastama reported to the Senate Judiciary Committee that SB 6179 corrects technicalities and would put Washington state in alignment with the Federal Switchblade Act. Before that committee on Jan. 25, Vellekamp stated, “We want to make it so Washington state is friendly for manufacturing all types of cutlery products.” Passing the new Sec 2 to Chapter 9.41 will make it legal to manufacture switchblade/automatic knives in the state of Washington, subject to certain restrictions.

    The proposed changes will also extend the legal possession and carry of switchblades/automatics to include active military, firefighters and rescue responders, in addition to law enforcement and state patrol officers. “We need to get rid of the stigma that these are weapons and we need to start calling them tools because that’s what they are,” Vellekamp testified. “The push for this bill is so that we can ensure the local law enforcement branches, our military and our firefighters get to use these valuable tools because when they get trapped, they need to get out. They need a tool at the ready that’s going to be there without needing another hand to open it.”

    For more info click on www.akti.org

For more on the latest knives, knife legislation, knifemaking instruction, knife trends, knifemakers, what knives to buy and where and much more, subscribe to BLADE Magazine, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication. For subscription information click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscripti…?r+ssfb031312#BL1SU

The Alaska House of Representatives has unanimously passed HB 55 “Definitions of Gravity Knives and Switchblades,” referred to by sponsor Rep. Mark Neuman as the “Knife Rights Act.” HB 55 would clarify state law on the subject of assisted-opening and one-hand opening knives to ensure they are not considered gravity knives or switchblades, currently banned under Alaska statute.

    According to Knife Rights, it requested that the bill be amended to include Knife Law Preemption, which would make knife laws consistent across Alaska. 

    
     HB55 is now in the Alaska Senate, where it has been referred to the Judiciary Committee.

    If you live, work or travel in Alaska, please contact the Senate Judiciary Committee members and ask them to vote in support of HB55. Contacts for Judiciary Committee members can be found at:   http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_com_info.asp?comm=SJUD&session=27. 

    Knife Rights Director of Legislative Affairs, Todd Rathner, testified in support of HB55 before the House Judiciary Committee, answering questions regarding both Knife Law Preemption and about the clarifying language of the bill.

    Knife Law Preemption protects honest citizens from a patchwork of local ordinances and rules that can entrap those traveling within or through a state in possession of knives that meet state law or wherever they live in the state. Without preemption, a person can be charged with a violation of law when they have no intention of violating the law.  

    As explained by Rep. Neuman, “Spring-loaded [assisted-opening] knives and other one-handed knives that have a bias towards closure are an important tool for Alaska hunters, anglers and many craftsman. Many of us carry and use knives every day, and some mechanisms, such as being spring-loaded, don’t make our knives switchblades. We shouldn’t be punished nor have our tools, which can be just as expensive as other implements, subject to seizure or forfeiture.”  

    For more info click on www.KnifeRights.org

For more on the latest knives, knife legislation, knifemaking instruction, knife trends, knifemakers, what knives to buy and where and much more, subscribe to BLADE Magazine, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication. For subscription information click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscripti…?r+ssfb030812#BL1SU

Congratulations! With the help of the many knife enthusiasts who emailed and called Georgia senators, the Georgia Senate passed SB432 by a vote of 41-12. SB432 is the Knife Law Preemption bill that would repeal all local knife ordinances more restrictive than state law.

    Now the bill moves to the Georgia House for consideration.

     Without the outpouring of emails and calls from knife enthusiasts around the country who let Georgia Senators know that this bill was important to them, it would not have passed. Thanks for your help!

     Much credit goes to Senator Bill Heath’s diligent efforts in getting this bill through the Senate under extreme time constraints. The knife community and BLADE Show (for more on the show click on http://bladeshow.com/ehome/index.php?eventid=31379&😉 attendees are lucky to have a Georgia senator who appreciates our rights and our tools and is will to work so hard to protect them.

     Knife Rights officials said they will now focus on the House and will update you shortly.

     As home to BLADE Show, successful passage of SB432 would not only ensure Georgia residents carrying a knife are treated fairly wherever they travel in Georgia, but all those traveling to the BLADE Show through towns and cities with knife laws more restrictive that Georgia’s otherwise decent knife laws would be safe from violation.

    Knife Law Preemption protects honest citizens from a patchwork of local ordinances and rules that can entrap those traveling within or through a state in possession of knives that meet state law or wherever they live in the state. A person can be charged with a violation of law when they have no intention of violating the law.

    The BLADE Show, held annually in Atlanta, Georgia—this year June 8-10, once again at the spacious Cobb Galleria Centre—is the world’s largest knife show and pumps millions of dollars into the local and state economy. SB432 would protect the thousands of exhibitors and visitors who travel to and from BLADE Show to buy, sell or simply enjoy the thousands of knives on display and the many knife-related events associated with the show.

    For more info on the pro-knife bill, click on www.KnifeRights.org.

For more on the latest knives, knife legislation, knifemaking instruction, knife trends, knifemakers, what knives to buy and where and much more, subscribe to BLADE Magazine, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication. For subscription information click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscripti…?r+ssfb030812#BL1SU