I need your help with a Dateline NBC story.......

M

Mike Turber

Joined
Oct 2, 1998
Messages
5,461
I have been contacted by Dateline NBC and they are doing a story on a police officer who killed a innocent person around 15 years ago. For the story they need a knife similar to one carried by the person killed. It is a gravity knife marked or called 007.

I remember several gravity knives from that time frame. One was marked "Elegant" and had a silver handle and was fairly cheap. I do not specifically recall one marked "007" so any help would be appreciated. We need the knife ASAP and I will handle the transfer to keep it legal.

Thanks!

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Best Regards,
Mike Turber
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[This message has been edited by Mike Turber (edited 05-23-2000).]
 
mike
The 007 I saw were cheap otf autos Taiwan made, not gravity knives.


[This message has been edited by TomW (edited 05-22-2000).]
 
I just thought of somebody I know that might have one. I'd like to help you out since you've done so much for us with the forum but do you really think it is in the best interest of knives?
 
Tom,

Ya I know about the cheapy knives on Ebay. I have several hundred of those here that I would love to dump.

The story is not about the knife or knives at all. It is about this cop who commits suicide after not being able to live with himself for killing an innocent person. I did educate Mr. Grossman on how many people are killed each year with "questionable" knives, ie butterfly, gravity, switchblades and the all mighty of all nasty knives the KGB Ballistic. It amounts to less than 1% and he knows that. Unfortunately since the story is not so much about knives that ground will not get covered most likely.

------------------
Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
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I'd suggest you contact Rugger, He's a member of the Empire Knife Club in NY, living in that area he might be able to help.

Jake
 
How about asking them to include just a tiny comment that knives, even the ones which are specifically weapons, can no more be reasonably banned than baseball bats, which could also cause injury? Just an idea, 'cause you know that quite a few people will think "well, he deserved it, carrying somehting like that" when they see the story. Dateline is notorious for making idiotic implications, like a recent story in which they portrayed a pair of drug-runners as victims, just 'cause they were young college students who ended up in jail in Panama (I think it was Panama), even though they both knew exactly what they were doing, and freely admitted it. If there ever was a news show that would attack knives, that's the one.

--JB

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e_utopia@hotmail.com
 
Mike-

OO7;s were big imported wooden handle jobs, no bolsters.
'usually paki or taiwan lineage. surgical stainless I am sure..
4" or more of blade.

There has to be a cop on the forums who has one or 2 confiscated ones laying around..

My NYC cop dad (retired) used to take them off truant kids ALOT 20 years or so ago.
 
I'll check the old 20MM ammo box when I get home. There used to be a 007 in there. I'm a real pack rat, so it's unlikely I threw it away.
 
OK, I've got one. Wood handle, 4.5" blade, marked "O.M.O.R. 007". Email me at barg_safari@pcisys.net tonight or at jeffclark@altavista.net tomorrow.
 


This is too weird, here's an e-mail I got a couple of days ago:

I think there are actually two different kinds of knives that go
by this name. One is a cheaply made, fairly small, non-
mechanical knife. You just unfold it with your hand (there's a
good picture of one on ebay, at http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-
cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=336070807).

But I believe (and correct me if I'm wrong) that there is also a
much more lethal knife that goes by the 007 name. Specifically,
a gravity knife (illegal in most if not all states.) Someone
told me that the smaller kind might have been a crass marketing
attempt to cash in on the notoriety of the real 007.

Is the one you have the smaller, more innocuous version (like on
ebay) or the big, lethal, probably-illegal kind?

This is purely for educational purposes, of course.

I have the wooden handled, non-nasty one made in Pakistan called the 007 Invictus. Too strange.

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KSwinamer

Atheism....A non-prophet organization
 


Woohoo my first double post since signing on here!!!
smile.gif


[This message has been edited by Kisu (edited 05-23-2000).]
 
The 007 that I've got was purchased to be an example of a big, ugly, gravity knife. I don't remember where I bought it, but it was over the counter with no legal issues. The handle is around 5.5" with the blade around 4.5" to make 10" overall. Not a little knife. The blade is not so loose that everybody can flip it open, but probably anybody could with practise. I don't know how long I've had it, but I would guess over 25 years. At that time it was a novelty, due to obvious conflicts with California laws.

There may be later variants of the knife that were larger. The story in question mentions 5" blade length and mine is a little shorter than that.
 
Jeff,
Ya beat me to the "less menacing knife" comment.
smile.gif
smile.gif


[This message has been edited by CK (edited 05-23-2000).]
 
"Less menacing?" I'd rethink giving the media any stock footage of "more menacing" knives.

Just look at what they're doing to guns in the media today.

My $.02

Mike
 
Jeff,

You've got mail!

Just give me a call @ 1-800-969-7771

------------------
Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
Do it! Do it right! Do it right NOW!
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Having grown up in NYC in the 70's - 80's, I can tell you the steel-handled one in the picture is NOT what the producer is looking for. The well-known 007's were straight, wood-handled, with a small curve at the back of the handle, like a buther knife. There was a red spacer between the handle scales. They had 007 stenciled in gold or etched on the handle, and came with a leather thong attched to the handle. They were big - 5" blade sounds right.

At the time, I had the smaller version - labelled the "707". Same construction, but more about the size of a Buck 110. I guy in the neighborhood had a 007 that opened just by taking it from his inside jacket pocket. My 707 was never that smooth. Sorry, but I sold mine to a ne'er do well in high school after I started carrying a butterfly - that one I still have.
 
You know, Mike, I'm with those who would be disinclined to assist NBC in producing a show that *might* or, more likely, would feature a nasty looking knife. We do not need that sort of thing. Remember, these were the folks who put detonating devices in the fuel tanks of GM pickups so that they would make more spectacular roll-over crashes.

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Walk in the Light,
Hugh Fuller
 
I tend to agree with the camp that says, "Don't give the media ammo to slap us with...", after all, think what they'll do with first person who kills someone (including himself) with a Busse, or a Sebenza, or any other more widely available "menacing-looking" knife, instead of some regional piece that was all the rage twenty years ago. I mean, a lot of the public will look at this knife and say quietly, "Gawd...would'ja lookit that thing?!? Glad he was in [insert city name here]." However, if it were a more commonly available piece, that same Joe Q. Public might instead think, "Jeez! There's a guy at work who has one o' those Sebenda-things! What's HE gonna do??"

Unfortunately, the knife community stands on a razor's edge (no pun intended (for once)) on this one. If we give Mr. Grossman his knife, it gets smeared across Dateline as the tool of a suicidal man...the tool that took him from his loved ones. The negative association would be all but impossible to prevent. BUT, if we DON'T give him the piece, especially now, after posting publicly that several members are aware of and own one, we risk appearing--at best--as cliquish, intent on keeping our things to ourselves, and--at worst--as having something to hide or fostering hooliganism with our "menacing-looking" tools.

Mike, all I can say is...better thee than me to make this choice. Either way, we could take an unfortunate hit. It saddens me that I feel justified in my suspicion of the media, but so many times...

Hoping that I'm blowing this WAAAAY out of proportion, I'll be watching this thread with special interest.



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Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy, and good with ketchup...
 
Either way NBC is airing the story. So would you rather it be coming from me so I have the chance to educate them or a Flea Market dealer who doesn't give a rats ass?

The part about the knife is not so bad. I have giving Mr. Grossman the FBI stats and hopefully they will have a role in the story. The local news stations always call on me for these types of stories to show the "other side" of the issue and usually we come out looking good and the "other side" comes out looking pretty silly. I kill 'em with facts not rhetoric or BS based on emotions.

The problem with this particular story is the knife plays such an insignificant role.

------------------
Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
Do it! Do it right! Do it right NOW!
Show Your Support -Visit Our Sponsors - Click On The Banners!
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