Dangerous Customs Ruling

[CJ Buck]

American Knife and Tool Institute Update:
AKTI has a board meeting and our annual member meeting at the Blade show every year.

This year a very concerning issue was surfaced. Rod Bremer, from Columbia River Knife and Tool (CRKT) shared a letter he had received from Customs that revoked some previous rulings and shared a new interpretation from Customs that will now consider assisted openers as switchblades.

I checked www.AKTI.org to see if the letters have been posted yet and a link to the ruling is there. We delivered a very strong call to action at the show this year.

The main concern for the knife industry in general is that this goes far beyond just the importation of assisted openers. The potential exists for language used by Customs being adopted for interstate commerce in the future.

The concept Customs is adding to the interprestation of switchblade law is "Human assisted inertia". This is the language they are using to make assisted openers switchblades. You "assist" the knife into an "inertia" opening state and that is just the same as if you pressed a button to open it.

When you really think about that language, it could be interpreted in the future to mean any folder you can "assist" open half way and flick open the rest of the way "inertia" would then be classified as a switchblade.

In other words...every folder ever made could be considered a switchblade.

AKTI is taking this very seriously. We have a conference call this friday to finalize actions and then it will be up to all of us to contact our legislators and prepare to generate some cash should we need to take this to court.

Please keep checking the AKTI website and here on the forums for action updates.

 

[jsrice]

Thanks for the info on this. I had no idea that this was going on. Its crazy to call an assisted opener a switchblade after all this time.

 

[Last Visible Canary]

I just find it weird that they would go after assist openers which are (to me) noticably harder to open then the axis lock. when they start calling the axis lock a gravity knife I'll get really worried.

 

[kdstrick]

That is definitely a "change"... but where is the "hope"?

 

[foxyrick]

I just find it weird that they would go after assist openers which are (to me) noticably harder to open then the axis lock. when they start calling the axis lock a gravity knife I'll get really worried.

Welcome to England - that's exactly what our customs have said about Axis locks!

Funny thing is they don't stop axis lock knives going to resellers, only to private citizens Maybe they're worried that a reseller might be able to fight them...

They are still being allowed to be sold from those resellers, which if the knife met the legal definition of a gravity knife (or switch blade, or many others) they would not as they would be illegal to import, sell or possess.

So, they are not illegal (yet!) according to the police, but customs say they are and confiscate them, almost daring someone to take them to court. The court would, of course, find in favour of customs and set a precedent making the knives illegal.

We can't win. Anyone up for a revolution???

 

[shunsui]

What's wrong with switchblades anyway ??

 

[foxyrick]

What's wrong with switchblades anyway ??

Nothing whatsoever to a sane, free-thinking person with no political agenda to play.

Unfortunately there aren't too many of those around, and they seem particularly rare (possibly extinct?) in governments. Especially in the UK.

...

Keep fighting the good fight over there folks - you have more of a voice than we do over here

 

[iamtoast]

Our rights are a game to some people. 'Switchblade' sounds bad (to many). And the argument becomes, "Why would anyone need a 'Switchblade' for an legitimate purpose?" Many think this way, not thinking that the question in itself is bound to make us loose what were once guaranteed individual rights. Their game is to get as many things as possible to be categorized as that thing "which noone needs for any legitamate purpose" and there is another right gone.

Its the same craptastic thing they are doing for 'Assult weapons.' A relative, who is usually very pro-constitution, became pissed off after I asked what she thought an 'assult weapon' is. She left no possibility of even discussion on the topic but informed me that noone but the military or police should be allowed to have guns that "hold alot of ammo(?)." Basically it becomes, "Do not even talk to me, I am right!" and that person votes in people who will re-authorize the 'assault weapons ban'.

 

[Liu Kang]

wouldn't it be cool if Busse made a folder? assister, auto, anything...

 

[Last Visible Canary]

Welcome to England - that's exactly what our customs have said about Axis locks!

Funny thing is they don't stop axis lock knives going to resellers, only to private citizens Maybe they're worried that a reseller might be able to fight them...

They are still being allowed to be sold from those resellers, which if the knife met the legal definition of a gravity knife (or switch blade, or many others) they would not as they would be illegal to import, sell or possess.

So, they are not illegal (yet!) according to the police, but customs say they are and confiscate them, almost daring someone to take them to court. The court would, of course, find in favour of customs and set a precedent making the knives illegal.

We can't win. Anyone up for a revolution???

I give england a slightly scewed eye. when they actually pass their proposed ban on pointed kitchen knives - I'll start getting scared for them.

after something so far to the legal extremist left as that, screwdrivers will have to be registered, bricks will be illegal outside the hands of registered brick layers, and edged tools of any description will be illegal outside of registered state sanctioned kitchens, restaurants and specified businesses. and yet people will still be killed, maimed, and robbed on a weekly if not daily basis.


I look at our prison system in the same light as englands knife laws in it's extremeness. we went to the same insane length as them under the bush administration (if you hack someone's email account and the government doesn't like you (-anyone- from or with ties to the middle east or just if they want to make an example of you) your up for potential gitmo vacation (literally, no joke, not funny, EXTREMELY serious)), and it's still done wrong now even though it's not as extreme.

when you fight the object (or the person) and not the social situation that helps build the person up that does the act - you ignore all fundamental reasons for why the act was done in the first place. england seems to think that taking knives off the streets will stop violent crime - we seem to think a putting a person in prison will make them a better and less criminal person when they are released into the exact same situation they were to begin with having had no counseling, education, or social change whatsoever.

same difference, just a different focus. both equally frightening.

 

[JWBirch]

What's wrong with switchblades anyway ??

This is truly the question we need to be asking. Not whether or not a one handed opener is less dangerous, but whether an automatic is any more dangerous. And since they're not, they should be legalized. Remember, butterfly knives were almost made illegal because they were one-hand openers. Actually, in some jurisdictions I think they were illegal for a while.

This may have been an issue in the 60s and 70s when gangs fought mostly with knives, but now that they've gone to guns the one-hand-opening knife is a moot argument. No, it's more of a backward argument.

 

[Tripton]

What's wrong with switchblades anyway ??

CLEARLY they are one of the preferred weapons of the white t-shirt, black leather jacket, bril cream using motorcycle gangs from 1954.

 

[wuyeah]

This may have been an issue in the 60s and 70s when gangs fought mostly with knives, but now that they've gone to guns the one-hand-opening knife is a moot argument. No, it's more of a backward argument.

Then they start to ban guns so ppl don't get shot. Then they start to ban alcohol cuz it is one of the highest death rate due to drink and drive. People have no gun, no knife, no alcohol and some start to ran ppl they hate over by cars. Then they start to ban cars. Before you know it, they will ban you from having multiple kids because over population cause some not able to get a job.....

Guys with bad intent out there would not care crap if carrying a gun or switch blade is legal or not. They carry them anyway. Banning is not the solution to solve the problem, education is. People need to be educate better and behave better. Before that happen, good people like us suffered by an useless decision that provide no solution to solve an existing problem. People do kill each other when they are out of their minds. Doesn't matter what they have in hand. A hammer, pencil, broken glass.....

 

[Guyon]

Just want to get this back up, make more folks aware of AKTI, and ask that knife owners contact the appropriate representatives/officials over this one.

 

[edgemaster]

i shipped a knife to UK, axis lock, they have it in customs now, considering it a gravity knife.
will the customs return the knife to US by request, where do the confiscated knives go?