It's Law! (10/28/09)

[AKTICommunication]

(October 28, 2009) The President has signed the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2892) for FY 2010 that includes a permanent “fix” so that any folding knife with a bias toward closure cannot be declared a switchblade by U.S. Customs.

However, knife owners should realize that they are still bound by the knife laws of their state. And if you travel to another state, you are bound by their state laws.

The significance of the legislative victory that was led by AKTI and supported by several other organizations cannot be overstated. If U.S. Customs had succeeded in broadly redefining a switchblade, as they proposed in late May 2009, domestic manufacturers and all owners of folding knives would have been in jeopardy. That’s because an import restriction becomes an issue for interstate commerce. And where local law enforcement might be uncertain about how to correctly apply their state law, they often turn to U.S. Customs to provide guidance.

AKTI needs your financial support. Now we will go to various states to try to change their laws to make them consistent with the new federal statute.

David D. Kowalski
AKTI Communications Coordinator

 

[hoopster]

(October 28, 2009)
AKTI needs your financial support. Now we will go to various states to try to change their laws to make them consistent with the new federal statute.

Keep up the good work!

 

[T.K.C.]

Yes, let's keep up the goo work!! THAT IS great news!!

 

[i am a person]

Awesome!

 

[Charlie Mike]

All our letters paid off

 

[Myne]

Thanks AKTI we all would have been screwed.

 

[The Government]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu.....


...dge Yah!!!

 

[eaglecaps]

what does all this legal mumbo jumbo mean?

 

[citytransplant]

Now we will go to various states to try to change their laws to make them consistent with the new federal statute.

Which states are most offensive?

 

[CJ Buck]

AKTI has been trying to change or eliminate legislative language when it comes to possession rules for knives, that is so vague or unclear it is open for misinterpretation.

In the custom case they had so stretched the legal definition of switchblade involving knives which can be opened by inertia, that it virtually opened the door to interpreting the law to cover all folding knives. The solution to the misenterpretation was to remove the section being misinterpreted...and that is what happened. A folding knife with a bias toward closure is not a switchblade..period. Clear and objective criteria so you the consumer can determine what is legal or not.

Now we would love to see states begin to adopt this clarification.