Benchmade interview with Tom Gresham

The only opposition I heard about the bill was that some people would think it meant they could carry the knife normally when they were passing through states where it's illegal to do so. After reading the bill, it specifically says that the knife must be stored in a compartment of the vehicle that is not accessible from the passenger compartment (e.g. the trunk). If your in a truck, a boat, on foot, etc., where there is no compartment separate from the passenger compartment, the knife must be in a locked box. Doesn't seem like the bill is misleading to me.

As far as the right of action thing, I'm no lawyer, so maybe there's something I'm missing, but the bill states that if it's cited as a defense in a criminal or civil case and you win the case, you will be entitled to attorneys fees and any costs incurred, and also be able to have the charge expunged from your record. Maybe that's leaving out damages that should be awarded for having your rights violated or something. If that's the case, I would agree that should be added, but even without that it seems like it would be a better situation than we currently have.
 
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-Corey- said:
The only opposition I heard about the bill was that some people would think it meant they could carry the knife normally when they were passing through states where it's illegal to do so. After reading the bill, it specifically says that the knife must be stored in a compartment of the vehicle that is not accessible from the passenger compartment (e.g. the trunk). If your in a truck, a boat, on foot, etc., where there is no compartment separate from the passenger compartment, the knife must be in a locked box. Doesn't seem like the bill is misleading to me.

As far as the right of action thing, I'm no lawyer, so maybe there's something I'm missing, but the bill states that if it's cited as a defense in a criminal or civil case and you win the case, you will be entitled to attorneys fees and any costs incurred, and also be able to have the charge expunged from your record. Maybe that's leaving out damages that should be awarded for having your rights violated or something. If that's the case, I would agree that should be added, but even without that it seems like it would be a better situation than we currently have.
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I think the problem is people are looking at different versions of the bill. Gersham is talking about the version that passed committee. Senator Thune inserted the language you mention about costs and attorney fees as a floor amendment. That is the version that passed the Senate.

I concur with the earlier posters that the gentleman from Benchmade needed to be better prepared.

For what it is worth, this legislation is particularly complex and hard to follow, and I am a lawyer and former counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee, which is the committee of jurisdiction for knife legislation.
 
Man - this is a lesson in crisis control. Show up in person to the interview. Own your mistake. Apologize to your base. Give concrete plan for how things are going to change. Give support for 2nd Amendment orgs.

I love Benchmade and hate to see how poorly this is going for them.
 
boss_crew said:
Man - this is a lesson in crisis control. Show up in person to the interview. Own your mistake. Apologize to your base. Give concrete plan for how things are going to change. Give support for 2nd Amendment orgs.

I love Benchmade and hate to see how poorly this is going for them.
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I agree. This should be self-evident. Hire a crisis communications expert. Do exactly what they say. Might be too late now, but still need to do it.
 
Transgressions aside.

This whole thing has been handled with the utmost incompetence.

Should have took a page. Lynn Thomson handled this perfectly. With class, honestly and integrity. And took no dirty shots. As a matter of fact..Lynn to a couple of clean ones.

I've seen none of that from Benchmade thus far. Quite the contrary.

Who's laughing at Lynn now? Nobody.

I certainly won't anymore. Cold Steel will be getting more of my business, for sure.


Les and Jr should have went in the feild, rolled their sleeves up, and shot some firearms..apologized, sincerely... spoke about plans forward and reaffirmed their commitment to 2A.

..all, while eating apple pie.

A token 5 figure donation wouldn't hurt.

Transgressions moved back, front 'n center.
 
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Benchmade should’ve handled this a lot differently. I don’t think it would even be that hard. But they should strike while the iron is hot. I don’t know, maybe they’re working on it.
 
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Well, on the plus side, Benchmade is certainly getting a lot of publicity. Unfortunately, it is all bad and this kind of interview is just throwing more gasoline on the fire. They certainly have everyone attention right now, but they are going to have to develop some real and immediate competence in order to deal with this. We have yet to hear an apology, a corrective plan to make amends, or even an indication that anyone at Benchmade is getting the message or understands the situation. In all fairness to this Marketing Director, I doubt that his role has previously placed him in the middle of a political fire fight like this. The bottom line is that many of us feel that Benchmade makes good knives but is politically naive enough to be dangerous to itself and our individual liberties. They need to lose the naivety fast and find a management team that can both produce and be sensitive to its customer base.

n2s
 
not2sharp said:
Well, on the plus side, Benchmade is certainly getting a lot of publicity. Unfortunately, it is all bad and this kind of interview is just throwing more gasoline on the fire. They certainly have everyone attention right now, but they are going to have to develop some real and immediate competence in order to deal with this. We have yet to hear an apology, a corrective plan to make amends, or even an indication that anyone at Benchmade is getting the message or understands the situation. In all fairness to this Marketing Director, I doubt that his role has previously placed him in the middle of a political fire fight like this. The bottom line is that many of us feel that Benchmade makes good knives but is politically naive enough to be dangerous to itself and our individual liberties. They need to lose the naivety fast and find a management team that can both produce and be sensitive to its customer base.

n2s
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I don't know..you sound pretty sharp to me. :)
 
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Jcsixx01 said:
For destroying weapons that the PD were going to destroy regardless?

It is silly that this must be pointed out, but being anti-mass shootings or anti-kids getting murdered at school is not being anti-gun.

We have tried nothing to prevent these terrorist attacks while claiming to be all out of ideas...unacceptable. This is a unique problem to the US. There are common sense steps that can be taken that are overwhelmingly supported by the majority of Americans.

The hysteria tied to immigration of poor people/building a wasteful wall pales in comparison to the actual dangers of domestic terrorism.

Brown immigrants are demonized without evidence while white rwnj terrorists are ignored. If minorities were responsible for the overwhelming majority of mass murders instead of white people there would be steps taken to protect citizens.

I say this as a pragmatic gun owner (including AR’s) that is disgusted by the political weaponization of an actual public safety crisis. Practical, common sense precautions are possible if politicians make good-faith attempts to do their job instead of partisan hackery.
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no comment
 
Need to remind you folks to discuss Benchmade and its handling of what happened.
This is not the place to discuss laws or proposed laws.
 
I just listened to this. From the 11 minute mark to the end....just brutal.

Benchmades marketing rep was not prepared for this conversation.

It’s going to be interesting to see how they move forward on this.

Rather than take the issue head on, it’s been more of a head in the sand approach with awkward silences and generic answers.

The silence is deafening.

I really hope and pray they can sort this dumpster fire out, make public amends, and remain a flourishing business.
 
knarfeng said:
Need to remind you folks to discuss Benchmade and its handling of what happened.
This is not the place to discuss laws or proposed laws.
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But this is about Benchmade making donations for proposed laws. Normally I always say leave religion and politics out of it but bechmande made this political. You can't really talk about what's going on with current benchmade and not go political.
 
This is one of those threads where it is better for me to not comment.

BM lobbing group.....
 
Bottom line is that BM got found out that they’re playing both sides of the fence. People don’t like that at all. It’s such a letdown that the trust you had is betrayed because of greed.
Personally, I don’t think it was an “Uh Oh” moment. Think about it. BM admitted to doing it in the past, why all of a sudden was it made public what they were/have been doing. With BM being a privately owned company, I’d guess that they have privacy policies in place to protect their trade name/ image.
 
That interview was painful to listen to, the guy was totally unprepared and while the host wasn't trying to slam him it ended up being pretty brutal.

Them being this unprepared, again, makes me think they are simply clueless, arrogant, or just don't care about the situation. Reinforces my position on them.
 
The point is, Benchmade owners or Benchmade as a company, have every right to support liberal political agendas if they wish. Those of us who are pro LE and 2nd Amendment have a right to choose to spend our money with companies who support issues that are important to us. I'm not naming any names in this sub-forum, but there are at least two makers of hard use knives that have been pretty active all along in their support of LE & 2A issues.

It's nice to have choices.
 
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They need to hire a capable crisis PR firm, clearly what they’re doing is NOT helping mend fences.


They tried to jump behind this proposed legislation to win points with everyone they have offended but it’s not going far with many. The Interstate Transport Act struck me as something that is likely to be as effective in problem areas as the current peaceable journey laws (FOPA etc)...in other words not at all in NYC and elsewhere. The fact is that some localities (and even states) are willing to blatantly ignore federal law if it suits their ideological views. We see this currently with guns, marijuana, immigration detainers and more. BM seem to think supporting this will score then points but it’s not.

I don’t think this interview (or anything else they have done) has helped BM repair the damage they did.

The big difference for BM in this is that unlike Surefire and EOTEch, they probably are mostly reliant on consumer sales rather than government contracts.
 
I am glad to see that Blade Forums has not censored discussion regarding this event with Benchmade. The reason for my thread "This is a Benchmade Knife Company Forum, there will be no discussion about Benchmade Knife Company here!" was my sad fear that Blade Forums desired to eliminate discussion of a scandal involving a major knife company, one who I might assume is a supporting (read:$$$) patron of the forum. Of course the discussion got out of hand in previous threads, people on both sides of the issue were hot enough to... (well, you know;-), both those choosing to support Benchmade at any cost, without regard (or dismissive) to what they did in support of the left's anti-gun/anti-freedom stance, and those who are outraged at Benchmade and would see nothing short of Benchmade closing it doors, firing it's workers and hanging all of it's management staff, and then demolishing the factory and salting the soil upon which it stood.
I think there is middle ground here somewhere, but stifling discussion about the issue would not have been the answer. ...Unless, of course, you lived under a dictatorship, then you would be used to it...
Anyhow, I am glad the discussion continues.

Oh, and one more thing; Benchmade is emphatically NOT the only manufacturer of quality knives, just throwing that out there...
 
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