bibsabad said:
Since you described balisongs as switchblades, and therefore illegal to import to the US, there will be repercussions as if I am trafficking illegal merchandise to the US, am I correct? I just recently came back from the Philippines and was able to declare 7 balisongs as souvenirs/gifts. I wonder if there's a limit in the number before US Custome will seize the package???
Oh, you just got a nice agent. He probably didn't feel like doing the paperwork on 7 of those silly knives.
When I came back from the Moscow knife show last year, I brought six liters of Vodka. You're only allowed two. The Customs inspector just looked at me and said, "Only six? Get out of here! It's not worth the paperwork..."
Once you have the knives in the US, they remain contraban perpetually and are perpetually subject to confiscation by US Customs. US Customs came to the Oregon Knife Collector's show a few years ago and cleaned a couple of dealers out of Italian switchblades. (From what I've heard, they got their hands whacked for it too by the local authorities who don't want a major tourist attraction for the community getting a bad reputation.) US Customs also did a major autos raid on the NY show some years ago and it really hasn't recovered yet.
Even if I was to buy one of your seven knives from you and then sell it to yet someone else, the knife remains contraban and could be confiscated from the person I stole it from. In reality, A) customs has shown no interest in raiding private collectors over a few balisong knives. B) with Filipinio handmade balisongs, it's hard to determine when the knife was made. A lot of the stuff they're making today looks just like the stuff they made fifty years ago. The brass is a little brighter, but not much else has changed. So, it's hard for them to tell whether a specific knife was imported before the ban or not without either resorting to expensive laboratory means or bringing in a expert. And I don't think there's a bona fide expert who's gonna take that work.
Once a balisong is in the US, it is NOT considered a switchblade for the purposes of the Switchblade Act. This means you can mail them and move them in interstate commerce with no problem.
But, they are illegal in many states. The Sovereign Nation of Kalifornia has been particularly agressive. They've tried to prosecute online vendors of balisongs and other knives that are illegal in Kalifornia even though the vendors aren't in Kalifornia under the theory that someone in Kalifornia might order one. Of course, I'm not a lawyer and I don't know what the laws of Kalifornia may or may not be. In my mind, it's the buyer's responsibility not to buy something that's illegal whereever they live. How can I know the laws in every city and state?
