Question, gentlemen, if you please. Have any of you been reading of the problems encountered now by two Kershaw "assisted opening" knives at the Arch Monument in St. Louis? It seems that the St. Louis Police and courts are interpreting their laws against automatic knives so as to include the Kershaw knives and the NPS rangers at the Arch are enforcing these laws just as they do any other local laws. Unless, or until, a court of higher jurisdiction overrules the Circuit Court for St. Louis, Missouri, I should think that purchasing and carryin one of these knives is a risky gamble. Why? Because any jurisdiction could suddenly start enforcing its switchblade laws in a manner so as to outlaw them, using St. Louis as precedent.
I am getting the feeling that such "assisted opening" knives as those made by Kershaw and others are in the sights of a number of law enforcement types who wish to see them outlawed, whether by interpretation of current laws or by modification of those laws, is irrelevant to them. They want them off the streets. I hope that AKTI is actively engaged on all fronts in this matter, for I don't believe that winning a court case here and there will be enough. I believe that we shall have to beat it down in all of its forms or we shall have to live with it and any of its offspring.
I am getting the feeling that such "assisted opening" knives as those made by Kershaw and others are in the sights of a number of law enforcement types who wish to see them outlawed, whether by interpretation of current laws or by modification of those laws, is irrelevant to them. They want them off the streets. I hope that AKTI is actively engaged on all fronts in this matter, for I don't believe that winning a court case here and there will be enough. I believe that we shall have to beat it down in all of its forms or we shall have to live with it and any of its offspring.