Posted on 11/19/2013 6:17:18 AM PST by marktwain
Knife Right’s ‘Knife Owners Protection Act’ Introduced in Congress, Crucial Knife Owner Protections Thursday, November 14, 2013
Knife RIghts are Second Amendment Rights
KnifeRights.org
Washington, DC:-(Ammoland.com)- Knife Rights’ Knife Owners’ Protection Act, H.R.3478 (KOPA), was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives today by sponsor Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ).
Knife Rights Chairman Doug Ritter explained, “KOPA will protect law-abiding knife owners travelling throughout the U.S. from the vagaries of restrictive state and local laws.
As long as possession of the particular knife is legal in the state where the journey starts and ends, and provided the knife is secured in accordance with KOPA, a knife owner would no longer be threatened with arrest simply for traveling from one place to another.”
KOPA is the first proactive pro-knife federal legislation introduced in the nation’s history.
Additional co-sponsors are: Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-MI), Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), and Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX)
“Those who travel across the country with knives for work, recreation and self defense are presently subject to arrest and prosecution under a confusing patchwork of inconsistent state and local laws and regulations, said Ritter, “what is perfectly legal in one place may be a serious crime in another, resulting in forfeiture of property and carrying significant penalties including jail time. Enforcement is not uniform even within jurisdictions and is subject to the vagaries of political expediency at times. Sportsmen and workmen who travel are particularly vulnerable.”
“The culmination of almost three years of effort, Knife Rights developed the Knife Owners’ Protection Act to address this absurd situation in a commonsense manner that is fair and equitable and is based on established legislative and legal precedent,” Ritter noted, “we’ve fought hard to defend the right to carry a knife in the individual states, cities and towns, but KOPA represents a key initiative to protect law-abiding knife owners simply passing through areas like New York City where possessing the most commonly owned pocket knife in America today, the one-hand opening folding knife, may result in arrest and prosecution.”
Sponsor Rep. Matt Salmon (AZ-05) said, “This legislation is long overdue. The Knife Owners’ Protection Act is a responsible and reasonable means of ensuring that knife owners throughout America can travel with assurance that their rights will be protected with equal respect for states with overly restrictive knife laws.”
The current situation with knives is similar to the circumstances with guns that existed prior to the passage of the Firearms Owner Protection Act (FOPA -18 USC 926A) in 1986, when Congress acted to protect law-abiding gun owners from a similar inconsistent patchwork of laws by insulating their travels if firearms possession was lawful at both the origination and destination points of travel.
Ritter noted “unfortunately, FOPA provides no protections whatsoever to knife owners, so they are completely unprotected from the same perils. It is entirely likely that a sportsman travelling with both firearms and knives who follows FOPA’s requirements to the letter and also locks up his knives in an abundance of caution, could be insulated against prosecution for firearms possession, yet be arrested and prosecuted for knife possession. That is a ridiculous situation. KOPA simply aims to protect knife owners in the same manner as KOPA protects firearm owners.”
KOPA has teeth to defend those who travel under its protection because it also provides penalties for law enforcement, prosecutors and others who ignore the protections provided. Similar to the protections and penalties generally provided in USC 1983 to those whose civil rights are violated, a falsely arrested citizen can be compensated for the expense of defending themselves from an unwarranted violation of the rights Congress has protected in KOPA.
Ritter closed by saying, “Knife Rights continues to lead the way with aggressive proactive legislative action to defend and protect knife owners’ rights. KOPA is just another example of our groundbreaking efforts to create a Sharper Future for all Americans.”
Read H.R3478 at: http://bit.ly/19njvUw
A FAQ on KOPA with additional details and background can be found at: http://bit.ly/1arZIa0
TAKE ACTION!
Getting this bill introduced is only the first step. We need your help to gain additional co-sponsors. If your Representative is not already a co-sponsor, please call or email your Representative and urge them to co-sponsor this commonsense legislation. You can find your Representative at: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Or, you can use the Open Congress website at: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/hr3478-113
Here’s a model email that you can use. We strongly suggest you keep it simple and to the point:
I support H.R.3478, the Knife Owners’ Protection Act of 2013. I urge you to become a co-sponsor of this commonsense legislation that will protect my rights and the rights of all knife owners to travel throughout the U.S. without fear of prosecution under the myriad of state and local knife laws.
ABOUT KNIFE RIGHTS
Knife Rights (www.KnifeRights.org) is America’s grassroots knife owners organization, aggressively fighting for a Sharper Future™ for all knife owners. Knife Rights is dedicated to providing knife owners an effective voice to influence public policy. In the past four years, Knife Rights has passed pro-knife legislation in 11 states and prevented anti-knife legislation in four states. Knife Rights is also the lead plaintiff in a federal civil rights lawsuit against New York City.
For more information contact:
Doug Ritter Chairman 602-292-0997 dritter@KnifeRights.org Todd Rathner Director of Legislative Affairs 520-404-8096 trathner@KnifeRights.org
Download a copy of the text of H.R3478 at: http://www.kniferights.org/KOPA_HR3478_text.pdf (Note please that the Government Printing Office takes a few days to issue the actual bill. It will be posted as soon as available)
Knife Owners Protection Act FAQs.pdf
About:
Knife Rights (www.KnifeRights.org) is America’s Grassroots Knife Owners Organization, working towards a Sharper Future for all knife owners. Knife Rights is dedicated to providing knife owners an effective voice in public policy. Become a Knife Rights member and make a contribution to support the fight for your knife rights. Visit www.kniferights.org
Distributed to you by - AmmoLand.com – The Shooting Sports News source.second amendment is not only about guns....it is about arms....not necessarily firearms.
A noble cause but does nothing about the patchwork of city laws within a state that vary wildly from community to community. What is needed is to work at the state level for preemption laws.
A good site to weigh in on these subjects and many more is:
I use it a lot and it seems to work fairly well. Just need more folks to participate on the site. They keep up to date on pending legislation.
What is needed is for the constitution to be enforced. That should supersede the patchwork of laws about knives. Make no mistake; knife law enforcement is not to make streets safer but to make a larger pool of felons who are forbidden from owning guns. Most of these knife laws are there as back door gun control.
Excellent source for automatic knives:
Highest quality sheath and folding knives:
(And no, I am not affiliated with either company in any way, shape, or form, nor do I receoive any type of remuneration; I’m merely a very satisfied customer.)
In the exercise of such ‘arms’, as I do believe that edged weapons are part and parcel of the word ‘arms’, as it was used when The Bill of Rights was written, and still is, today, I look to another pioneer, the late Col. Fairbairn. He was part of the police force in Shanghai, China, in the first half of the 20th Century. (Yes, the Faibairn of Fairbairn-Sykes notoriety.) He had developed what has become known as the Shanghai Knife, for personal protection.
http://www.gotavapen.se/gota/artiklar/fs/shanghai/shanghaiknife.htm
I do submit that there are numerous folding knife designs today. But they still lack the rigidity of a one piece of steel design. I do admit that either the Fairbairn-Sykes design, or the Case V-42, are paramount, but the Shanghai Knife brings that little bit of “city-fied civility and elegance”. In a time and place of major Chinese Tong activity, Col. Fairbairn was not “underarmed”, with this little beauty.
“If you like your knife, you can keep your knife. Period. Nobody will take it away from you.”
I recall a few years back, that an American Indian was whittling a piece of wood as he walked a city street in the Northwest (Oregon or Washington), and a cop stopped, got out of his police car and gunned him down and killed him. Just for whittling a piece of artwork.
So they might not take your knife, just your life.
Found a link. Audio in the video has multiple shots fired under a second after ordering him to drop the knife, the Indian was half-deaf and didn’t hear the cop.
http://www.copblock.org/1451/police-officer-murders-half-deaf-hobbling-native-american-man/
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