CALIFORNIANS: urgent action item alert - NOT A DRILL

Heh. Ya, it looks like we'll come out of this OK. As I said on the other thread, once this letter from Karnette is officially published, AKTI should scan it and put a copy on their website, so we can print it out and eliminate most "LEO field confusion" by politely hauling it out as needed
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Now for some comedy. Before going in, we took Jason's BF knife carry bag, added in my roommie's borrowed Spydie Goddard and three nice pieces loaned by Walt Welch. As a finishing touch, I'd brought a small padlock that we put on the bag. Going in, we agreed that I'd carry the bag mainly because I would be talking first, and I looked just a bit more "corporate looking" (read: tie) than Jason
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Upon announcing ourselves as opposition, all three of us were called up to sit at the front witness tables where the microphones were, right inside the semi-circle of raised committee member seats. I grab a squat right next to this older lady, Jason and Nadja end up a few seats over and on the other side of CJ and the CDAA crew. I smile and nod at "granny" as we sit.

I started talking about the potential for confusion, and I ask the committee chairman if I might show some of the knives in question.

As I put the bag on the table, a cop comes ambling up from behind. I politely explain that this is a locked bag with legal pocketknives in it, and offer him the key and permission to inspect. This seems to calm him considerably...he tells me to unlock it, and with slow and non-threatening movements I open the bag and slowly show him the contents. Maybe 20 folders total
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. He's OK once he sees that's all that's in there. So later, as I'm bringing a few of these out and showing various features, I explain that all of these high-quality knives *can* be snapped open...while saying this, I'm holding one of Walt's large plain Sebenzas. Before snapping it, I turn to "granny" and ask her if she's OK with me demonstrating such a snapopen...she's calm, and says "go ahead", so I do with minimal arm-movement and keeping it down close to the table, and then lay it down. I continue talking, and glance over to make sure "granny" hasn't freaked out
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Well lemme tell ya, it's a good thing I took that much care not to cause concern.

Because "granny" turned out to be SENATOR Karnette, the bill's author, who later penned the improved legislative intent statement above! I only found that out when she spoke after me
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. When CJ says that we did a good job presenting our side, much of what he means is that despite sitting right next to her and doing a Sebenza snapopen, I didn't frighten her and as a result, we were able to get something quite nice out of her
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Damn. That was CLOSE
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Jim
 
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