“Those who would trade liberty for the illusion of security deserve neither.”  Ben Franklin

Posted in Our Knife Rights, Politics

Breaking News from Doug Ritter of Knife Rights

Our representative in Washington reports he was told that CPB has received 8 Postal Service tubs containing an estimated 2,000 comments. Knife Rights was told to expect an opportunity to inspect the comments during the second week of July after CBP has had the opportunity to open and classify the comments. Thanks to everyone who made the extra effort to mail in their comments to Customs. One must assume that this is about 7.9 tubs more than they expected.

As you may have heard, the effort to attach an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill in the House failed to get out of the Rules Committee. It appears to have been killed over procedural issues. We now move to the Senate side where we hope for better luck and have more time to prepare, coordinate with other groups and marshal our forces.

The fight to protect our Knife Rights and a Sharper Future continues…

If you were following us on Twitter, you’d already have received this news.  Get the latest news as soon as we have it:  http://twitter.com/KnifeRights

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Doug Ritter
Chairman and Executive Director
Knife Rights, Inc.
a 501(c)(4) Member Organization
dritter@KnifeRights.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/KnifeRights

Posted in Knife Law Beat, Legislation, Our Knife Rights, Politics

Lee Chipley, an executive of Smokey Mountain Knife Works, was killed earlier today while riding his 2009 Harley Davidson motorcycle on the way to work.

Tennessee Highway Patrol confirmed the accident occurred around 6:56 a. m. this morning when a Ford Explorer turned in front of Mr. Chipley.

Posted in Knife industry, People

The knife fight is now on Capital Hill. Earlier today, Knife Rights‘ Doug Ritter provided us with an update on the fight to keep one-handed openers and assisted openers from the definition of a switchblade. Knife Rights is working with members on Congress to fight the Custom and Border Patrol’s (CBP) proposed rule.

Doug stated “This is just the first step in a complicated process, but it is important.” Accompanying this update was a link to a letter to Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the U. S. Department of Homeland Security to withdraw the CBP proposal. This important letter is signed by 80 members of Congress.

Also, two Representatives- Bob Latta (R-OH) and Walt Minnick (D- ID) have co-sponsored an amendment to the Homeland Security’s appropriations bill to restrict funds to implement CBP’s proposed rule.

So, what does all this mean? It means we have initial support from Members of Congress to cut off funding needed by the Department. I’m sure it is more involved, however, the bottom-line is support to champion the cause is taking hold.

As we are updated by both Knife Rights and American Knife & Tool Institute, we’ll pass them along.  In the meantime, take a gander at this official Congressional letter to the Ms. Napolitano.

I don’t know how often Breaking News will occur about this fight, but if you are into Twitter- Knife Rights is providing live updates. Follow them on Knife Rights Twitter.

Posted in Knife Law Beat, Legislation, Our Knife Rights, Politics

Since I have been on a rant lately, I am compelled to post this too.

Talk about a dumb knife- it’s this “anti-stab” knife produced in an effort to, well I’m not quite sure why in the heck it was produced, now that I think about it. The obvious reason is so it can’t stab an intended victim, which is why I have called it a dumb knife.

Here’s the deal- Assume all “pointed” knives are banned. Is anyone of the mindset who would actually end up stabbing someone actually going to carry this dumb knife? Absolutely not. It goes back to the gun issue in my mind. Only the criminals will have guns if you were to take them all away.

The same applies to knives. Outlaw knives and only the criminally minded will have them then. Which is why this knife is dumb.

At face value it was designed to keep folks from stabbing other folks. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. The other thing I must tell you is this knife is going on sale in the UK and is being marketed as the first Anti-Stab knife ever produced.

….and you thought this was a joke, didn’t you?

Posted in Editorials, Knife Law Beat, Our Knife Rights

Prior to the recent presidential election we witnessed a run on guns and ammo. Actually, the increased demand for guns is still going on, as we reported here on CNJ. Now, with hyper-attention on our government’s attempt to ban knives of all sorts, is there a reason to stockpile our favorite EDC’s?

It is difficult to sort out fact from fear pertaining to the gun scare, for example. We witnessed the same when Clinton was elected- in fact, I am the proud owner of two prized possessions (hand and semi-auto) as a direct result of the anticipated move by the gov then. We see the same taking place, but the difference now is our knives are also the target.

The extreme left positioned sitting prez sees the time is now to stop all weapons used in crimes- all to appease the liberal left. The “love not war” crowd. The “let’s not govern ourselves, individually- cause we can’t- so let’s let our Gov do it to for us”- crowd.

So, where does all this leave us? Should be be stockpiling our favorite EDC’s, not to mention survival/tactical knives, in case we need to defend ourselves- knowing one day all we will have access to could be the infamous miniature red Swiss Army Knives?

Yes, it will be at the risk of being branded as militants- a part of hard core, anti-gov crowd, but do we do it anyway, or do we trust the folks in Congress to do the right thing and stand for the will of the people and fight this to the end?

Well, what if the will of the people is to restrict knives further and Congress actually supports further restrictions and knife bans? Have you thought about that? If this happens, then where does that then leave us?

Posted in Editorials, Knife Law Beat, Legislation, Our Knife Rights, Politics

By now you have read or watched about the U S Customs Service broadening the definition of a switchblade to include assisted opening knives. While I am not surprised by this move one bit, it strikes me as very poor timing.

We are bumping a 10% unemployment rate here in the US and the lose of jobs, or entire industries, is the last thing we need right now. My gracious, unless the current Admininstration is also wanting to take over the knife manufacturers, then they best pass the word down to Customs to back off.

The finanical impact knives have on our economy- The U. S. Sporting Knife Industry accounts for a $5.9 Billion impact.

• 3881 direct U.S. Employees of 61 Companies
• 19,405 Ancillary Support Jobs in other Industries
• $986 Million Gross Revenues at the manufacturer/importer level

Then comes the biggie-

80% of all knives sold are Assisted-Openers and One-handed knives!

Statics: Provided by the American Knife & Tool Institute- “Fighting to protect our knife rights”

Posted in Economic News, Editorials, Knife industry, Knife Law Beat