CJ Buck
Moderator
- Joined
- Apr 15, 1999
- Messages
- 898
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.
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.
