Outrage: NYC DA Shakes Down Knife Retailers

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NYC never ceases to amaze me!

I too will boycott HD and will send them a letter telling them so. I am already a member of Knife Rights and sent in a few extra bucks to try and help.

This city is out of their minds and continue to go after the wrong folks. They seem to enjoy harassing the law abiding citizens. I know this is off the topic of knives, but just to show you what is going on here.

A few weeks ago I received a letter from the NYPD regarding a few of my hunting rifles. I have had my rifle/shotgun permit for almost twenty years. However, with my last renewal, they wanted me to list all my firearms. Not sure if this was a tactic to catch some folks owning firarms that they shouldn't, or if they lost the paperwork. Anyway, I get a letter three months after my new permit was sent to me telling me that I never registered three of my "weapons" and they wanted a notorized letter telling them why.

I just copied my original receipts from over 15 years ago and sent them in with copies of my registration certs. and for those firearm owners in NYC, do you remember the little green cards that the NYPD would send back to us? Well, I sent them copies of those as well to prove that the firearms were registered.

The best is, the licensed firearms dealer (a retired NYC LEO) I purchase from told me this is because some of the files were destroyed in a flood! This isn't even anything new. The same thing happened to a friend of mine last year after his renewal. After checking with the dealer, he told me that NYC is doing this to everyone when they renew??

If I can move out of this city tomorrow, I would.

What gives here!:confused:
 
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charles


I would report your findings with the NRA. I believe they would be very interested in this subject as it is a direct relation to personal self defense issues with New York City.

Getting back on topic, this is yet another reason why I can't state enough that people MUST get invloved and ACT upon your thoughts and make sure as many people as possible read and or hear them.

I personally live in Florida "what I used to call the last free state" concerning self defense. It seems New hampshire and Wisconsin may be waking up the the 2nd amendment being a reality and not a myth from the old days.

GOD BLESS them for being seriously reasonable.

The information needed to make a difference is within this very thread, thanks to other people posting. Make sure to review it and ACT upon it!
 
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Charles, I don't live in the city ( for over 20 years), but I keep my rifle/shotgun permit renewed since I wish to keep my right to bring a rifle or shotgun legally into the city. I went in person to their location in Queens, and if your saw the staff in their old basement office, you would understand it all. It was like going 40+ back years in time! Old file cabintes, and all paperwork. Little to no computer data. I had to fill out the form last time I renewed and just got my new renewal this year with the form attached again.
 
sandbar said:
We are behind you sir! Let us know, when it is time to stand up and we will!

Is there anything else we can do right now?
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Well, money always helps. ;)

Unfortunately, unlike a purely administrative or political issue, like last summer's fight with Customs, this deals with criminal litigation, civil rights, and the like, and for the moment, that's where our focus must be. Unfortunately, litigation takes time and requires even more money than legislative solutions. We are working on it.
 
I have supported akti.org and kniferights.org in a financial and verbal sense. You are absolutely right. Most people have no clue what kind of $bread$ it takes to feed this fight.
 
I have been looking into this situation in more depth for an article in the upcoming issue of Knives Illustrated Magazine. No, I won't go into the specifics here, you have to buy the magazine for that...

but I have talked to Home Depot, and they told me that Lowes has no stores in Manhattan, so they were not a part of the bust--by luck more than anything. Home Depot's comments and their side of things is in the article.

Among the knives they commandeered from Home Depot were versions of folding box cutters under the Husky line--the same knife that was ruled to NOT be a gravity knife in US District Court in 2007, which invalidated a New York City arrest of a citizen for carrying the boxcutter because the office called it a gravity knife.

So we have a DA supposed to be upholding the law, threatening prosecution for selling gravity knives that a U. S. District Court Judge has already ruled that the knives in question are not gravity knives. No logic in politics.

When I contacted the NYC DA's office, I asked a series of questions, among them how many gravity knives under their definition were used in the knife related crimes they quoted in the press conference. I also asked the statistics of whether knife crimes were up or down in previous years. The first person I talked to patiently took down my questions, and said they would get back with me. I got a return call within about 10 minutes from a blunt rather stern sounding woman at the DA's office who told me that they would answer no questions from me, because "we do not comment on ongoing investigations--and it is an ongoing investigation". I think the fact that I identified myself as editor of Knives Illustrated Magazine may have had something to do with that!

Naturally I protested, asking what those questions would have to do with harming any investigation--but she threw back, "You'll get no comment from us, you'll just have to write your story on your own without our comment." I took her at her word and did just that. I think you will find the resulting story worthy of your time.

I later contacted their office and asked for a photo of DA Vance at the press conference, the one with the U. S. District Court ruled-not-a-gravity knife Husky box cutters in the foreground of the photo. It appears that the DA, whose name and face is plastered everywhere on their website, had no such photos of himself at the press conference. Not one! Go figure. Strange for a politician to not have photos of himself at a press conference--which is why most politicians have press conferences.

However, be very aware that this is not the end of this, and perhaps it is only the beginning. Several companies have stopped shipping knives into New York state because of this out-of-control DA. One of the quotes from the DA is that he plans to use the internet as an investigative tool--and was looking at out-of-state dealers for the next money grab. (Money grab are my words, not his).

Bullies will always intimidate others until someone stands up to them.
 
i live in nyc (manhattan) and have been stopped before (about 2 months ago) by leo with a delica 4 clipped in my pocket... two female officers asked me to see it and asked why i had it... I explained that i travel alot and have found a knife a very usefull tool... i told them it was a very sentimental knife and that it has seen many years with me... They told me to just bury it in my pocket and to not have the clip showing... i got to leave with my knife.
 
It seems that the administration the runs the Big Apple drinks too much Kool Aid. The mayor has a demented anti-gun campaign that aims at law-biding citizens and now the DA and his troglodytes are stalking the local knife-wielding Boy Scouts... Wow! These are the same people who can't be bothered taking the time to prosecute to the letter of the law the thugs caught on the street with loaded, unregistered, handguns yet this 'precious' time is squandered nabbing geezers (my age group) who dare to whittle a piece of wood??? And here i thought that Canada had all the 'loonies'...
 
:thumbup:Spark finally made this a sticky.Maybe this will get more exposure now.Thanks Spark!:)

I renewed my kniferights membership last month.Is there anything else I can do?I don't have a lot of money for donations.
I don't live in NY.I live in NJ,but if history is any witness,NJ usually follows closely behind NY regarding this sort of crap & vice versa.
 
tennknifeman, where is the best place to purchase the magazine? I am very interested in knowing more of this story. If I order the magazine, will I get the issue you speak of? Sometimes new orders take a bit to process and I don't want to miss the latest and greatest.
 
tom19176 said:
Charles, I don't live in the city ( for over 20 years), but I keep my rifle/shotgun permit renewed since I wish to keep my right to bring a rifle or shotgun legally into the city. I went in person to their location in Queens, and if your saw the staff in their old basement office, you would understand it all. It was like going 40+ back years in time! Old file cabintes, and all paperwork. Little to no computer data. I had to fill out the form last time I renewed and just got my new renewal this year with the form attached again.
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Tom, I believe that you can bring your rifle/shotgun into the city without a permit but it has to be unloaded, cased and removed from the city within 24 hours. Since you are a retired LEO, aren't you covered under LEOSA with respect to firearms? I am not sure if LEOSA covers knives and other edged weapons, though.
 
Sandbar,

Knives Illustrated is available at most major newsstands, and a lot of Walmarts.

If you specifically want that issue that could probably be arranged.
 
TennKnifeman said:
Sandbar,

Knives Illustrated is available at most major newsstands, and a lot of Walmarts.

If you specifically want that issue that could probably be arranged.
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I definately want that issue and a yearly subscription to the magazine. I wish to support it, since you are running this story.

I ask again where is the best "cheapest" place to pick up a yearly deal?
 
I know the getlemam who is the buyer for Paragon custom knives and knives. He was telling me that basically they cam in and any knife that had some sort of assited opening mechanism as well as any knife that you could open with a snap of the wrist was confiscated.

I then asked my niece's fiance who is a LEO in NYC about the knife laws and he stated told me that they are stopping anyone who has a knife with a pocket clip regardless of blade size or opening mechanism and confiscating it.

I asked him once they confiscate it is there a way to get it back if you get a reciept, and he stated that if you ask for a receipt you'd probally get arrested and they are logging in the knives as eveidence so they don't get released back to the owner.

This is not the first time I heard that if you ask for a receipt they will arrest you, I know someone who was stopped by the police and his knife was conficated and when he ask for a reciept he was told "we'll give you one but then we have to arrest you"

I guess the police can change the laws as they see fit in NYC. Or at least bend them to work for them
 
Tennknifeman-

Subscription to the mag inbound. I will also join kniferights.org with a donation of $ to help! Unfortunately, I cannot express in words how I feel about this.

Keep up the good work!

Bill
 
I haven't read all the posts here, but has anyone done any research on the "type" of knives used in crimes over say, the last 10 years? My guess is most would be kitchen knives - not modern locking knives. Just curious. This is going to be a tough fight. The citizens of NYC are so apathetic when it comes to such things.

I would imagine the vague,ambiguous law and its arbitrary enforcement would fold in court. Can we sue and challenge the validity of the law?

Jordan
 
jnich67 said:
Can we sue and challenge the validity of the law?
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Yes, we can. All it takes is money. <~> We are working on that.

Being in the right is only half the battle. We have that part won. You have to be able to afford to fight to succeed in the end.
 
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