Ok, Here's an idea, need input.

For what it's worth, I always considered a gravity knife a folder with a blade that, when partially open, will swing freely back and forth without a sharp flick of the wrist - a blade that moves with very little friction. Perhaps these vague laws would benefit from some specifications on an acceptable coefficient of friction. This is far from technical, but I think it gets the idea across...
 
Be careful what you ask for. If you ask for a clear law about knives, you may get it and you may not like it. Remember, we are dealing here with that most dangerous of species: the politician. They've been known to over-react and they frequently make important decisions about subjects they know next to nothing about.

There is a popular perception that we have a problem in this country with crime, and especially violent crime. This is despite the fact that crime rates have declined every year for the past twelve years and violent crime has declined the most. But, again, we're dealing here with politicians. Facts and statistics are the farthest thing from their minds.

There's an old saying, "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Well, when your a legislator, every problem seems like it can be solved with a law. Productivity is a measure for many jobs. How many widgets can you process per hour? Unfortunately, legislators, whos' job it is to make laws, seem to also feel that their productivity, their value, is measured by how many laws they can make. So, showing these people a problem is a dangerous thing.

The issues of crime and of weapons and knives are so emotional and so controversial, that I'm afraid that legislators would feel the need to make laws that are far to restrictive.

We have a national organization, AKTI, which works to lobby legislators. The folks who run this organization are some of the biggest and most recognized names in our industry. They are professionals and they know how to play the political game. They have our goals in mind. The best thing we can do is support their efforts.



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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com
 
The work that was done on the knife laws in California seems like a good place to start, and this forum seems to have some good older threads on the topic. From my perspective the thing that is nice about the addition to the CA switchblade law, as I recall others have said that Buck was instrumental in the change, is that it specifies design intent as opposed to any existing condition. Design intent is critical as anyone could modify or wear out a product, creating a condition that was not intended by the maker but a condition which the maker could be liable for if existing condition is used as the criteria.

Using a firearm as an example anyone could chop the barrel of a shotgun down below the legal limit, or modify the trigger assembly on some firearms to create a full auto capability, intentional or otherwise. I've seen service rifles go full auto at highpower rifle shoots, and it certainly wasn't intended. The point though is that the maker shouldn't be held liable as the firearm wasn't designed to be operated in such a manner.

Considering knives, if a maker designs a knife to be opened with the thumb, using a hole or stud on the blade, there are no additional aids to opening and there is adequate stiction to discourage use as a gravity knife, one should accept that the design was intended to be used as a one hand opening knife and not a gravity knife. A maker however starts walking on thin ice if the stiction is designed to be low, allowing snap of wrist action by a majority of people to consistently open and lock the blade, or if other opening aids enable the same. Note that with enough force and/or practice some people can snap open quite a few folders, typical slipjoints generally excpeted, and is a condition that should be acknowledged but not considered as design intent.

As an example when some of the Opinels are stored in a dry environment the wood handles shrink which enables the blades to move freely, creating a literal gravity knive. I think that it's fair to say that the knife wasn't designed to be a gravity knife, it's considered by some to be one of the 100 best product designs, and is generally considered to be an elegant addition to picnic basket than the pocket of a thug. Another example would be snapping the back of a knife against a hard stop with a lot of force, be it one's wrist, boot, belt, or whatever, a condition which can open quite a few knives, but one which isn't cosnsidered normal use by the vast majority of users. Once 'normal conditions of use' are agreed upon it shoud be a straight forward exercise to develop some stiction/force specs if desired, but it would be nice to be able to avoid such specs.

Anyway, regardless of whether anyone agrees with me or not, that's not important, I think that the discussion is.
 
I wouln't recommend doing this under the current administration. Just sit still and relax. We have to give it a chance to work itself out.
 
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I strongly agree with Golinick (Chuck) and what Mike Turber said about sitting on this until _All_ the facts are in.
We could literally be stabbing ourselves in the foot if things are not done at the proper time. And since we're _only_ the ELU's in this case and _Can Support_ any action the manufacturers come up with; I think that's what we should do.
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Yvsa.
 
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