AKTI Opposes U.S. Customs’ attempt to classify assisted-opening knives and all one-hand opening knives as switchblades.

Posted on BladeForums.com by Doug Ritter 

AKTI STATEMENT -
AKTI Opposes U.S. Customs’ attempt to classify assisted-opening knives and all one-hand opening knives as switchblades.

Customs’ proposal will make criminals of 35.6 million Americans.  The definition of a switchblade or automatic knife has been clear and explicit in federal law since 1958. There have been several state court cases in California, Texas, Illiinois and Michigan on the issue of assisted-opening knives.  Every judge in every case has ruled they are not switchblades because they do not possess an activating button on the handle.

In fact, AKTI’ s bill on the Texas governor’s desk now clarified their statute, reaffirming the 50-year old federal definition, and clearly distinguishing one-hand openers and assisted-openers from knives classified as switchblades or automatics.

Be warned,  AKTI fears that all folding knives will be at risk.  U.S. Customs’ proposal indicates it is directed at only the importers of assisted-opening knives. However, the language used in their revocation document is so broad and uses virtually every term ever applied to any knife that opens with one hand. We fear that they are attempting to bypass the will of Congress and that once they succeed in getting assisted-openers defined as switchblades, they could move against all folding knives. These include multi-tools, traditional pocket knives, one-hand openers, and assisted-openers.

If you want to view a video of what AKTI fears about this situation and about your being branded a criminal if you carry a folding knife, go to . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5KINtCajwI

AKTI’s Knife User Data ( http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-KnifeUserData.pdf ) documents that at least 35.6 million folding knife users would become de facto criminals if Customs has their way. AKTI’s Talking Points ( http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-CustomsTalkingPoints.pdf ) tells you in simple language what Customs is really trying to do. Share these documents with other knife owners and your elected representatives at the federal and state level.  . When you are write letters or emails on this issue, you can use this data.

AKTI learned, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on June 10, 2009, that U.S. Customs has denied the AKTI request for an extension of the comment period.

We must now ask our national lawmakers to help us. That should be the first letter you write.
You can find out who your lawmakers are and their email addresses by going to .

Find your congressional officials
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

Review our communication suggestions  
http://akti.org/legislation/communicate.html

This is the absolute # 1 action step you must take TODAY.
Please use one of the following letters to email your lawmakers (You can also follow up with a copy sent via regular mail or fax to help reinforce your request. If you know the lawmaker, please call them. Even if you don’t know them, an assistant will make a note of your concern and convey it to the lawmaker.)

Be sure to personalize your letters
Individual Letter to Legislators as Word Document (.doc)
http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-LegislatorIndividualLetter.doc

Individual Letter to Legislators as Rich Text File (.rtf)
http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-LegislatorIndividualLetter.rtf

Company Letter to Legislators as Word Document (.doc)
http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-LegislatorCompanyLetter.doc

Company Letter to Legislators as Rich Text file (.rtf)
http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-LegislatorCompanyLetter.rtf

This entry was posted on July 5, 2009 at 8:32 pm and is filed under Knives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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