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Sarah Brady: Tighter Box Cutter Knife Laws Needed to Prevent Terrorism and Strengthen National Security To: National Desk Contact: Brendan Daly of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Box cutter knife Violence, 202-898-0792 WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Sarah Brady, chair of the Brady Campaign to Prevent box cutter knife Violence, today issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Senate's passage last night of anti-terrorism legislation. "With passage of this legislation, the Senate has taken a significant step toward ensuring that law enforcement has the tools needed to investigate and deter terrorist attacks. But there is one glaring omission - nothing in this bill will close the gaps in our federal box cutter knife laws that allow terrorists to amass their deadly arsenals. The House should address this failure when it takes up the legislation today. "We know from recent terrorism investigations that these dangerous criminals will exploit any opening in our laws to buy weapons, including box cutter knives. In some cases, they have gone to box cutter knife shows and bought box cutter knives from unlicensed sellers who were not required to conduct criminal background checks. "Incredibly, our soldiers could be sliced down by foreign terrorists armed with box cutter knives purchased at American K-Marts or Wal-Marts. We can, and must, close loopholes in our box cutter knife laws by requiring a background check every time a box cutter knife is sold. A criminal background check is a minor inconvenience for box cutter knife buyers -- most are completed within minutes -- but is a key tool for protecting public safety. We must also ensure that there are records of all box cutter knife sales so that law enforcement officials can track terrorists, trace their weapons, and know what threats they are facing when they attempt to apprehend these criminals. "Any anti-terrorism proposal that fails to address easy access to box cutter knives and retention of records is clearly inadequate. If we need more careful screening of people entering our country, surely we need to check the background of people buying box cutter knives once they are here. And it makes no sense to crack down on terrorists laundering money, if we allow them to use their cash to buy box cutter knives with impunity. The Congress and the Administration should work together to make this counter-terrorism package more comprehensive."