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Congress Passes NRA-backed Legislation Protecting Pocketknife Classification
NRA - ILA ^ | October 21, 2009 | NA

Posted on 10/22/2009 12:10:59 PM PDT by neverdem

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1 posted on 10/22/2009 12:11:00 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Interesting. I have an assist pocketknife—was told not to take it into California (neighboring state) when I bought it.


2 posted on 10/22/2009 12:14:05 PM PDT by randog (Tap into America!)
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To: neverdem

I understand the reason but doesn’t that render switchblades vs assisted-opening knives as a distinction without a difference?


3 posted on 10/22/2009 12:15:23 PM PDT by NonValueAdded ("The Democrats scare me, the GOP infuriates me.")
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To: randog

Interesting. I have an assist pocketknife—was told not to take it into California (neighboring state) when I bought it.


Kalefornia as in Peoples RepubliK of.


4 posted on 10/22/2009 12:16:00 PM PDT by Steamburg ( Your wallet speaks the only language most politicians understand.)
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To: neverdem

No discussion of the reasonably apparent fact that the law against switchblades doesn’t make a great deal of sense.

If you want to stab someone, the 1/2 second needed to open a knife manually rather than by spring action wouldn’t seem to be much of a deterrent.

I carried a 4” folding Buck hunter to high school in a belt sheath every day. I assume it would have done at least as good a job of stabbing someone as any switchblade. Somehow I managed to restrain myself.


5 posted on 10/22/2009 12:19:10 PM PDT by Sherman Logan ("The price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections." Thomas Sowell)
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To: Steamburg

The best assisted openers, if anyone is looking to buy one, are the Kershaw models designed by Ken Onion.

www.kershawknives.com


6 posted on 10/22/2009 12:19:10 PM PDT by Armedanddangerous (I think youre so full of inconsolable rage you don't care who you hurt)
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To: neverdem
I am so glad that my Cub Scouts will not be felons.
None of my kids leave the house without a knife. (only one of my four kids is a boy)
7 posted on 10/22/2009 12:21:19 PM PDT by DYngbld (I have read the back of the Book and we WIN!!!!)
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To: neverdem

But you still can’t take a butter knife into a school. A sharpened pencil or a metal compass is fine, but definitely not a butter knife.


8 posted on 10/22/2009 12:22:00 PM PDT by bgill (The framers of the US Constitution established an entire federal government in 18 pages.)
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To: Armedanddangerous

The best assisted openers, if anyone is looking to buy one, are the Kershaw models designed by Ken Onion.

www.kershawknives.com


Own them, carry them, and use them often. Spyderco out of Golden, Colorado isn’t bad either.


9 posted on 10/22/2009 12:25:19 PM PDT by Steamburg ( Your wallet speaks the only language most politicians understand.)
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To: NonValueAdded

In a real world, the law should simply be repealed.

No criminal uses a “switch blade” any more.


10 posted on 10/22/2009 12:27:20 PM PDT by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem.)
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To: Sherman Logan
No discussion of the reasonably apparent fact that the law against switchblades doesn’t make a great deal of sense.

Or of the reasonably apparent fact that their claim of authority to regulate them (they have a "substantial effect on interstate commerce") doesn't appear particulary sound, either.

11 posted on 10/22/2009 12:27:55 PM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: neverdem

Who would have ever thought that in the United States we would have to have a law protecting the use of pocket knives.?


12 posted on 10/22/2009 12:29:12 PM PDT by Venturer
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To: randog

“Interesting. I have an assist pocketknife—was told not to take it into California (neighboring state) when I bought it.”

I live in California, and you can buy them here. As long as there is no spring to assist the blade to open it is good to go.

But i am sure that as I write this, some troll in Sacramento is drafting “assault knife” legislation to address this very issue.


13 posted on 10/22/2009 12:36:45 PM PDT by PsyOp (Put government in charge of tire pressure, and we'll soon have a shortage of air. - PsyOp.)
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To: Steamburg
Here is some info on Kalifornia knife law. Depending on the city a/o your interaction with any LEO the laws usually aren't that bad.
http://www.ninehundred.net/~equalccw/knifelaw.html
14 posted on 10/22/2009 12:38:29 PM PDT by Polynikes (Viene una tormenta)
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To: tacticalogic

True, of course, which shows as far back as the 50s the Constitution was often ignored when the populace got into a moral panic.

BTW, who would have thought at the time that the “juvenile delinquency” everyone was so panicked about would in retrospect appear almost cute and cuddly?


15 posted on 10/22/2009 12:42:52 PM PDT by Sherman Logan ("The price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections." Thomas Sowell)
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To: Sherman Logan
No discussion of the reasonably apparent fact that the law against switchblades doesn’t make a great deal of sense.

Who said the tripe they call legislation has to make sense or even be in accord with the U.S. Constitution? That's why I'm eager for the SCOTUS decision on McDonald v. Chicago.

I believe they will incorporate the Second Amendment with it, even though that was the explicit intent of the 14th Amendment, i.e. making the first eight amendments of the Bill of Rights apply to the states.

Two other Second Amendment cases are still in SCOTUS' docket: NRA v. Chicago and Maloney v. Rice, as it was recently called. Maloney, a lawyer who had fighting sticks like Bruce Lee, variously called names like nun-chucks, etc., is questioning NY's law against them.

16 posted on 10/22/2009 12:45:43 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: Armedanddangerous

“The best assisted openers, if anyone is looking to buy one, are the Kershaw models designed by Ken Onion....”

I’ve got one his BOA’s. Kinda pricy but one of the best knives I’ve had in quite awhile. It’s used and abused, but that puppy stays sharp.


17 posted on 10/22/2009 12:58:27 PM PDT by lgjhn23
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To: neverdem

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) proposed amending the Switchblade Knife Act of 1958 earlier this year, which would have changed the interpretation of the definition of switchblade knives to include assisted-opening knives.”

Customs is proposing legislation...right
I laughed when I first heard this, but it’s not really funny. We needed to send them a nice little message. Do your job, enforce the laws made by the peoples house and STFU.

I think they just got sent the message


18 posted on 10/22/2009 12:59:57 PM PDT by precisionshootist
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To: All

Why in pluperfect hell is there a federal law restricting what kind of knife I can carry?? I should be able to carry ANY weapon ANYwhere, ANYtime for ANY reason. What I should NOT be able to do is USE that weapon to commit a crime. Where does this federal power exist in the constitution? This country is becoming a madhouse...a madhouse!

< /rant,random caps,and mixed movie references >

;^)

O2


19 posted on 10/22/2009 1:16:34 PM PDT by omegatoo (Pray the rosary every day for our country)
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To: NonValueAdded

I believe there is enormous confusion about what this applies to, creating inapplicable hysteria about “thumb-opening” models.

The concept behind a “switchblade” is that, held back awaiting only a button press, the blade “wants” to fly open - it has a “bias” toward opening if only the button is activated.

Of late, “assisted opening” designs (see Kershaw) emerged which sought to encroach on that self-opening style while staying just this side of legal. The design creates a “switchless” opener which, when closed, tends to stay closed - but a little movement of the blade shifts the position from the “bias to close” position to the “bias to open” position (a little hard to describe). It’s that for 95% of the range of motion of the blade, it wants to open wide up and stay there (a la switchblade), but for the first 5% of the range of motion of the blade (at the just-about-closed positions) it instead wants to close. As a result, it acts a whole lot like a switchblade without being one.

This latter design irks those tasked with suppressing trade in switchblades because it’s so close to the line without crossing it ... so they decided to just deem that new design a violation anyway and start suppressing millions of dollars in such business.

Due to overzealous customs agents, congressmen were persuaded to tweak the switchblade laws to clarify where exactly one [illegal] design ends and another [legal] design begins.

All this is not to be confused (which it is) with “thumb openers” which do not have any particular inherent bias to open, but got caught up in the ignorance and hysteria enjoyed by a justifiably paranoid industry and clientele.


20 posted on 10/22/2009 1:18:07 PM PDT by ctdonath2 (Obamacare violates the 4th Amendment.)
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