CALIFORNIANS: urgent action item alert - NOT A DRILL

The beginning of this bill says it is promoted by the AKAT. Now I am really confused.
COMMENTS :

1)Author's Statement : According to the author, "I am carrying
SB 274 on behalf of the American Knife and Tool Institute and
the California District Attorneys Association (CDAA). My bill
is a clean-up measure to legislation enacted in 1996.

"The purpose of SB 274 is to address prosecutorial concerns
about the current switchblade statute, which has been
interpreted by several trial courts to provide a blanket
exemption for all one-handed folding knives. This was not the
intent of the 1996 legislation.

"My bill would only allow knives to fall under the exemption
from the switchblade law if the knife contains a detent or
similar mechanism to ensure there is a measure of resistance
that prevents the knife from being easily opened with a flick
of the wrist.

2)Need for This Bill : CDAA (co-sponsors of this bill) notes,
"In 1996, the Legislature amended Penal Code Section 653k to
create an exemption to the switchblade knife law for knives
designed to open with one hand utilizing thumb pressure
applied solely to the blade of the knife or a thumb stud
attached to the blade. The intent of this provision was to
cover knives widely used by law enforcement and sports persons
for lawful purposes.

"Unfortunately, the 1996 amendments created an unintended
loophole for criminals to carry dangerous weapons. After
passage of the new law, law enforcement began finding imported
knives possessed by criminals which appeared to meet the
technical language of the exemption; namely switchblade knifes
equipped with thumb studs which served no real purpose. As a
result, law enforcement or the courts have been compelled to
return these dangerous weapons.

"SB 274 would close this unintended loophole. The legislation
would clarify the Legislature's intent by further defining the
exemption to require that the knife must have a 'detent or
other mechanism that provides resistance that must be overcome
in opening the blade, or that biases the blade back toward its
closed position.' This provision would ensure that knives
that are functionally switchblades remain in violation of




SB 274 Page 3

Penal Code Section 653k.
 
A personal thank-you Jim! It is well that those of us "right coasters" are informed of the California doings. What starts up there always works its way eastward, when it comes to legislation.
David

------------------
AKTI# A000150
NC Custom Knifemakers Guild member
NC Knife Knuts member
 
Banding together is great and will do big things..
Also I found as a Bow Hunter Safety Instructor it's much better
to get someone on your side rather than butt
heads with them, then they will work for you not against you.
( if they're bigger then you are your going to get a headache.)

Some of the heads of States even some of the past
US presidents have knives from some well known
Makers.
A few more of these guys should have a nice tool of their own to
see that it's the guy behind the knife that is dangerous.
not the knife.
I could Kill someone with an icesicle
( tell me it can't be done)
but if I did would they take
Popsicles out of the stores.
We need to convert these guys, find the root to there problems.


...Dan...<A HREF="http://www.kynd.com/~graydg/kniveslist4.html">Gray Knives</A>
 
The word 'ban' sure does leave a metallic taste in one's mouth, sorry I'm not Californian, or I'd be writing someone.
 
som of ace guys back in the wood cain't spill
verry good cain we, but way do ayer best.
.. Dan
 
The good news is, there's no more need to call/fax/email/etc. The bill in it's current state combined with the latest "legislative intent letter" from the bill's author now add up to "we dodged the bullet, for now". As long as the proposed legislative intent letter holds up, we should allow the bill to continue unopposed. Halting it completely was never possible given how late in the game we geared up to deal with it.

More legislator contact at this point would be counterproductive. The flood of contact you guys did just before the Assembly committee hearing DID HELP, and there was a hell of a lot of it. Approximately 2,000 BFers used the EMail contact system we were able to borrow from the NRA
biggrin.gif
.

We effectively "softened them up" for the necessary changes to the legislative intent language. See the latest posts in this thread for more details:

http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum30/HTML/000138.html

Cheap Asian linerlocks in the $5 to $10 range could be banned, but that's about it. Not great, but considering how much worse it could have been...we dodged a bullet.

This time.

Next time around, I want to see more continuous communication out of AKTI, and I'd hope AKTI now realizes the potential grassroots power of BF and is more open to harnessing it. It was a learning experience for all.

Jim
 
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