When gun bans are not enough--the war on . . . pocket knives?

June 12, 2:41 AMSt. Louis Gun Rights ExaminerKurt Hofmann

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     Oleg Volk photo

The Customs and Border Protection Agency has proposed a rule change that would classify most modern folding knives as "switchblades," and thus illegal.  The following is from an email alert from Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA).

U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) on May 21st proposed revoking earlier rulings that assisted opening knives are not switchblades. The proposed new rule would not only outlaw assisted opening knives, its new broad definition of a switchblade could also include one-handed opening knives and could be easily interpreted to cover most other pocket knives, even simple old-fashioned slip-joints.

At this point, one-hand opening and assisted opening knives are 80% of U.S. knife sales. For most knife companies, they represent all or the majority of their product lines. These are the knives Americans take with them to work and to play everyday.

This being merely an administrative change in rules, rather than a new law, it does not even have to go through the normal legislative process.

Even worse, the alert points out that CBP's definition will be used for much more than determining which knives can be imported.

The impact of this CBP ruling would go far beyond just imported knives because this "agency determination" will be used by domestic courts and law enforcement to determine what is a "switchblade" under both federal and state laws. Many states do not themselves define switchblades and simply rely on the federal definition and interpretation, which is only found in rulings by CBP. Since interstate commerce in switchblades is prohibited, except under very limited conditions, simply driving across a state line with a pocket knife in their possession would make someone a federal felon.

Still worse than that is the fact that this is nearly a "done deal," and that CBP plans to go through with this rule change very quickly.  From the American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI):

EVEN MORE URGENT NEWS – AKTI has learned that U.S.
Customs, at 5:00 p.m. eastern time on June 10, 2009, has
denied AKTI’s request for a comment period extension.

On behalf of the entire sporting knife industry and all knife
owners across the country, AKTI has hired a specialized U.S.
Customs and Trade law firm to draft a response in defense of
our knives. But that may not be enough.

Please help!!! Help us to help you: Write letters to U.S.
Customs and spread the word TODAY. Your letter must get
to U.S. Customs (via snailmail) by June 21, 2009 (but that’s a
Sunday so get it there by Saturday, June 20 or sooner).

Why the rush, and so little opportunity for the public to make its wishes known?

World Net Daily's excellent article about this situation provides some interesting information about how CBP came to reverse its earlier approval of the very same knife that is now being specifically banned.

He said the change came after the incoming administration of President Barack Obama reassigned some managers at the agency.

"What we do know is when the incoming administration reshuffled assignments at Customs, it moved the responsibility for knives and switchblades from one organization with Customs to a new organization," he said. "That group has, as far we can tell, virtually no experiences, background or anything with knives."

By the way, a discussion of the illegality of switchblades in the first place, and how to reconcile such a ban with shall not be infringed, is beyond the scope of this article, but it's a discussion worth having.

I realize that this is not the "St. Louis Knife Rights Examiner," but consider what a rule change banning 80% of the folding knives currently on the market implies about what the federal government will do with regard to guns.

Austin Gun Rights Examiner Howard Nemerov will be on NRA News' flagship program "Cam & Company" tonight at 11:20pm Eastern to talk about his article Does Concealed Carry Support Law Enforcement?

Visit www.NRANews.com to listen live to the broadcast! If you miss the show, you can listen to an archived edition until the the next live edition of "Cam & Company" airs.

NRA News is a daily internet and satellite radio (Sirius Patriot 144) news program sponsored by the NRA. Listen weekdays from 9:00 PM to 12:00 AM EDT for the latest in Second Amendment related news and politics.