Pocket Knife Ban Stopped! (latest news 10/20/09)

Just received this from Doug Ritter:

WE STOPPED CUSTOMS Pocket Knife Grab! The Senate has passed the conference report for the fiscal year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill with our amendment to the Federal Switchblade Act intact. The bill will now be sent to the President for signature. There is no indication that he would veto the bill.

This is the culmination of an incredible effort on the part of Knife Rights, American Knife and Tool Institute, NRA, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and many other organizations who contributed.  Each organization made key contributions to the effort, without which the end result might not have turned out so well. Not many folks gave us much hope of succeeding when Customs first proposed revoking their rulings and redefining what is a switchblade back in May.  At a time when bipartisanship is rare as hen’s teeth in Washington, we garnered support from both sides of the aisle.

We succeeded because the coalition of groups that came together to fight Customs represented a broad swath of American industry and grassroots.  We succeeded in large part because of YOUR contributions, letters and calls in support of our efforts. You can give yourself a pat on the back for your effort and a job well done against all odds.  It is time to pop the cork on that bottle of champagne and celebrate a victory for your knife rights and for all America.

To help you celebrate and commemorate this incredible victory, please purchase one of our collectable “WE STOPPED Customs Pocket Knife Grab” coffee mugs, t-shirts or sweatshirts, available for a limited time only: www.cafepress.com/KnifeRights

Proceeds will help pay off the incredibly high cost of accomplishing this victory.

Knife Rights has quickly grown to become America’s largest grassroots knife owners organization. This latest fight against Customs Pocket Knife Grab has validated the power and importance of a dedicated grass roots organization in defending your knife rights. Now we have to finish paying pay for this effort. It took a great deal of money to accomplish all this.  Carrying a fight like this to Washington cannot be done without lots of cash. The victory isn’t complete until we pay the bills. PLEASE DONATE TO SUPPORT THIS FIGHT FOR YOUR KNIFE RIGHTS!  http://bit.ly/Scvp9

In addition to all those who wrote and called their reps to get to this point, we owe http://www.KnifeRights.org a huge ‘Thank You’ for having the foresight to organize beforehand and therefore be in place in order to beat back the attempted restrictions of liberty our own government would seek to impose on us.

Call to Action: Knife Rights /Pocket Knife Ban (update 10/01/09)

News from Doug Ritter at KnifeRights.org:

URGENT ACTION ALERT

On September 16th Knife Rights participated in a lobby day on Capitol Hill, along with representatives of the American Knife and Tool Institute, the NRA and the Congressional Sportsmen Foundation.  Representing Knife Rights were Doug Ritter, Pete Brownell and Jason Kunkler (from www.knifecenter.com). While it was an exhausting, and at times frustrating, experience, it was clearly beneficial that House Committee and Member staff heard from us why it was so important to retain the Senate Amendment 1447 in the final Homeland Security Appropriations bill. I am confident that had we not made this effort, we might not succeed in the end.

As for that, we are all still waiting.  We remain cautiously optimistic, but it isn’t a done deal by any means.

Today, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) indicated on the floor that he hoped to have the DHS Appropriations Conference Committee report on the House floor next Thursday. That is no guarantee, but at least gives notice of what they are aiming for.

Also today, the Speaker of the House appointed House Conferees for the DHS Appropriations bill.

If any of the Representatives below represent your district or you are from their state, please contact them immediately and ask them for their support to keep Senate Amendment 1447 in the final bill.  If you operate a business that is involved in the knife industry or if knives are an integral part of your business’ or employee’s operations or activities, tell them that this amendment protecting assisted opening knives is critical to your business.  Keep your call POLITE, SHORT and TO THE POINT!  Do NOT ramble, do NOT discuss any other issues. This call should take no more than a minute or two, total, except for any time on hold.  If you cannot follow these simple rules, please don’t call. Again, keep your call POLITE, SHORT and TO THE POINT!

At this point, PHONE Calls are BEST, FAX next, emails last.  You can call their local district office; you don’t necessarily have to contact the D.C. office.

You can find your Representative’s web site with office phone numbers at:  http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml

DHS Appropriations Committee Conferees:

David R. Obey (D-WI)
David E. Price (D-NC)
Jose E. Serrano (D-NY)
Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX)
C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD)
Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV)
Nita M. Lowey (D-NY)
Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
Sam Farr (D-CA)
Steven R. Rothman (D-NJ)
Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Harold Rogers (R-KY)
John R. Carter (R-TX)
John Abney Culberson (R-TX)
Mark Steven Kirk (R-IL)
Ken Calvert (R-CA)

CALL TODAY!

You heard the man; get to calling!

Call to Action: Knife Rights / Pocket Knife Ban – Write Your Reps Now!

I just (9/09/09) received this from Doug Ritter (KnifeRights.org):

URGENT ACTION ALERT – Write House Members Now!

Time for the Final Push to stop Customs Pocket Knife Grab.  We need you to write NOW!  BUT, not all of you…

We have a targeted list of leaders of the House committees that will be involved in the Conference Committee that will decide if Amendment 1447 is included in the final bill. We need you to write ONLY if you are from their state, OR if you travel to their states for work or recreation (hunting, fishing, camping, etc.). In other words, to get their attention, you either need to be a constituent, or someone who supports their constituents with your money spent there. The states are:

California
Illinois
Kentucky
New York
North Carolina
Michigan
Texas
Wisconsin

You’ll find a list of the targeted Congressmen with addresses, fax and web sites, along with links to a Model Letter to use to write the Congressmen and detailed instructions, here:

http://www.kniferights.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=96&Itemid=1

or

http://tinyurl.com/ldwyum

Time is of the essence.  You need to write TODAY!

This fight is not yet finished. All our efforts can be undone if Amendment 1447 doesn’t survive Conference Committee, which is not yet assured. Your letters will be critical in garnering the support we need.  Please, do it NOW!

In cooperation with our coalition partners, we have scheduled a day of meetings September 16th on Capitol Hill with the House Conference Committee leadership. Your letters will help set the stage for those meetings.  There is also the chance that this Conference Committee will meet prior to the 16th.  In that case, these letters become even more critical in backing up our ongoing lobbying efforts. Please help us get this job done. Write TODAY!

Although he says to only write if your Rep is on committee – I disagree.  Everyone should write and do it NOW.

Call to Action: Pocket Knives to be BANNED on 6/21/09

I just finished listening to Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk podcast [1st hour 6/7/09 – link to listen or download] detailing how the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol have prosposed a rule change to ban pocket knives.

Synopsis: CBP issued a proposed rule change in what amounts to a ‘newsletter’ that would essentially outlaw all pocket knives that could be opened with one hand by re-classifying them as switchblades. The kicker is that they only will allow 30 days to receive comments –  a ridiculously short period – and all comments have to be submitted by snail mail! It took two weeks (the newsletter was dated MAY 21, 2009) before news of this change made it around to the notice of knife rights advocates  so now we only have two weeks left (until June 21st) for us to mail and them to receive our letters. Not postmarked by 6/21 mind you, but received. Furthermore, unless you send it certified mail they can claim it wasn’t received.

Pretty damn cruel don’t you think?  They have purposely made it as difficult as possible to submit comments and are counting on YOUR apathy to let this become law!

KnifeRights.org has the complete rundown on this lowdown attack.

I strongly suggest you read it and act! [Read here.]

Update:  SayUncle has the latest news:

American Knife and Tool Institute:

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.

Update (June 22, 2009): From Doug Ritter of KnifeRights.org

Just a quick update on the latest news regarding Customs’ Pocket Knife Grab.

National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) submitted Comments opposing CBP proposal on behalf of the NRA’s nearly 4 million members “most of whom carry at least one pocket knife on a regular basis,” and requesting “the ruling reversal be abandoned.”

Read their letter here:  http://bit.ly/tyUA4

Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus has urged U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to withdraw CBP Proposal.

Read their media release here:  http://bit.ly/rhqh1

We expect more news from groups opposing this Customs proposal later today.  Start following us on Twitter to get news as soon as we have it:  http://twitter.com/KnifeRights

What Next?

There does seem to be some confusion on, based on emails we have received and posts on various online forums, as to what happens next.  So, just to clear up any questions, this proposal does NOT now take effect.

The comment period has ended. CBP now has 30 days to do something and there are a number of possibilities.

1) They can issue a final rule which may or may not be exactly the same as the proposal (they can make revisions based on comments received.

2) They can open the proposal for comment again with or without changes, or

3) They can kill the proposal entirely. Clearly, we would prefer the latter, but nobody is betting on that.

If they issue a final rule, then it becomes effective 90 days later. If that happens, you can expect that there will be legal challenges that could potentially delay enforcement, as well as legislative solutions being pursued. This is only the end of the first round. Lot’s more to happen.

In the meantime, we are working with Congress on legislative solutions NOW and I hope to have some announcements in this regard this week. Of course, those can take time to have effect and may or may not actually end up being passed. I can assure you that all those emails and letters to Congress are having an effect, as is the support of NRA and other major constituent groups who have brought this issue to their attention. You can expect to be asked to write again, once these legislative initiatives begin in earnest.

Update (June 22, 2009): Also from Doug Ritter of KnifeRights.org

Breaking News: We have been working closely with Representative Bob Latta (R-OH) and are pleased to announce that Reps. Latta and Walt Minnick (D-ID) have co-sponsored an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill to Restrict Funds to Implement the proposed CBP rule.

Our thanks to Reps. Latta and Minnick for taking a leadership role in this fight.  This is just the first step in a complicated process, but it is important.  We will post more information as soon as we get it.

As reported in an earlier News Slice, Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus has urged U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to withdraw CBP Proposal. We have now posted the Congressional letter with 80 signatures here: http://bit.ly/8mU3w