URGENT: Knife Rights Needs Your Help to Pass Knife Preemption Bill in Georgia

Critter

Critter

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URGENT Deadline on SB432 - CALL NOW! ​

Knife Rights' Georgia Knife Preemption Bill SB432 must be scheduled for a vote in the next three days or it will not become law.

SB432 makes certain that Georgia's knife laws are consistent throughout the state. As the home of the BLADE Show, this is very important to knife owners, collectors and manufacturers and means millions of dollars in business to Georgia.

The Georgia legislature is in the final hours of the 2012 session and there are a lot of bills competing to be heard before the legislature adjourns, most likely on Thursday.

It is critical for you to take a moment and call the office of Georgia's Speaker of the House David Ralston and POLITELY request that he "please schedule SB432 for a vote as soon as possible." That's all the message you need to leave.

If you are a BLADE Show attendee, or ever plan to be, and even if you are not a Georgia resident, you have a stake in this issue...CALL TODAY! Phone calls will have the greatest impact.

Georgia House Speaker David Ralston: 404-656-5020
Email: david.ralston@house.ga.gov

PLEASE CALL TODAY!​
 
What does the Blade show have to do with local knife laws?
Is it your position that without the passing of this bill the Blade show will no longer be in Georgia?

What are the state laws in question? Would the passage of this bill mean that I could carry/buy/sell a knife anywhere in Georgia (except courthouses or government buildings) with a blade no longer than 5"? Who's to say the state won't change that to 2" next year?

I admit to not following this issue, or having any real knowledge of the knife laws in my state (Georgia). I am willing to make a phone call, but as a rule I don't believe I can have any real effect on any politics above the local level, so why would I want to give the state authority that currently resides with my local government? A government that is more accountable to me than the state, and made up of my neighbors. If I don't like the local ordinances it's a whole lot easier to change the government of my city/county, than my state/country.
 
I think Knife Rights fights for what is best at this time. So a law making the state law the law of the land instead of a city that has a more restrictive law is currently the best interest of knife owners. If you can make a phone call and get something changed at the state level then obviously you can make a difference. I doubt anyone except for the majority of the population will get much changed in the city of Atlanta. To make a difference in a city like that you almost need to go to the state level. At any point the state can make a law that is more restrictive and local law won't make it less restrictive. So I don't think this will ever be able to be turned around to hurt you it just makes local law less restrictive.

Anyways, I called.
 
FLymon said:
What does the Blade show have to do with local knife laws?
Is it your position that without the passing of this bill the Blade show will no longer be in Georgia?

What are the state laws in question? Would the passage of this bill mean that I could carry/buy/sell a knife anywhere in Georgia (except courthouses or government buildings) with a blade no longer than 5"? Who's to say the state won't change that to 2" next year?

I admit to not following this issue, or having any real knowledge of the knife laws in my state (Georgia). I am willing to make a phone call, but as a rule I don't believe I can have any real effect on any politics above the local level, so why would I want to give the state authority that currently resides with my local government? A government that is more accountable to me than the state, and made up of my neighbors. If I don't like the local ordinances it's a whole lot easier to change the government of my city/county, than my state/country.
Click to expand...

BLADE Show is held in Cobb County which borders on the City of Atlanta, which has the strictest knife laws in the state. Atlanta limits possession of knives with a blade length over 3 inches "readily available." It also bans the possession of automatic knives. Both are sold at the BLADE Show, so someone purchasing a knife at BLADE could easily go into Atlanta for dinner and face arrest. What effect do you suppose that would have on the BLADE Show int he future? Or, imagine a knife dealer exhibiting at BLADE driving into town through Atlanta with a knife that is otherwise perfectly legal in Georgia and being arrested after a traffic stop or being arrested for a a truck full of "illegal" automatic knives, which are perfectly legal at BLADE Show? What effect will that have on the future of BLADE in Georgia?

I really have to ask, have you actually tried to change local knife laws? Especially in a city like Atlanta you have a better chance of winning the lottery. Over the years we have learned that changing local laws in places like Atlanta, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Boston, New York and many other major urban cities is nearly impossible. These places are much more likely to make local knife laws stricter not looser. We have also learned by watching our friends at the NRA that preemption is the way to overcome these local ordinances and thereby protect innocent law-abiding citizens of the state. NRA has passed firearms preemption in 38 states and it has helped prevent cities from enacting bad gun laws. We intend to do the same for knives.

Yes, this law would allow you to buy/sell/trade/possess knives according to state law which is much more lenient than may cities in Georgia. If some state legislator decides to try to make laws stricter, we then only have to fight that restriction in one legislature instead of dozens of city council chambers around the state. It is far more effective and efficient to work at the state level, especially with limited resources. As a perfect example, we were able to defeat proposed legislation in Nevada last year that would have defined any knife 2-inches or longer as a "dangerous knife" under state law.

Your local house member is elected locally in a district usually smaller than a city, so you can have an effect on them. Your call as a constituent really matters! Also your call coupled with many others can certainly effect the Speaker of the House in this case. So I would encourage you to call ASAP!
 
Critter said:
BLADE Show is held in Cobb County which borders on the City of Atlanta, which has the strictest knife laws in the state. Atlanta limits possession of knives with a blade length over 3 inches "readily available." It also bans the possession of automatic knives. Both are sold at the BLADE Show, so someone purchasing a knife at BLADE could easily go into Atlanta for dinner and face arrest. What effect do you suppose that would have on the BLADE Show int he future? Or, imagine a knife dealer exhibiting at BLADE driving into town through Atlanta with a knife that is otherwise perfectly legal in Georgia and being arrested after a traffic stop or being arrested for a a truck full of "illegal" automatic knives, which are perfectly legal at BLADE Show? What effect will that have on the future of BLADE in Georgia?

I really have to ask, have you actually tried to change local knife laws? Especially in a city like Atlanta you have a better chance of winning the lottery. Over the years we have learned that changing local laws in places like Atlanta, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Boston, New York and many other major urban cities is nearly impossible. These places are much more likely to make local knife laws stricter not looser. We have also learned by watching our friends at the NRA that preemption is the way to overcome these local ordinances and thereby protect innocent law-abiding citizens of the state. NRA has passed firearms preemption in 38 states and it has helped prevent cities from enacting bad gun laws. We intend to do the same for knives.

Yes, this law would allow you to buy/sell/trade/possess knives according to state law which is much more lenient than may cities in Georgia. If some state legislator decides to try to make laws stricter, we then only have to fight that restriction in one legislature instead of dozens of city council chambers around the state. It is far more effective and efficient to work at the state level, especially with limited resources. As a perfect example, we were able to defeat proposed legislation in Nevada last year that would have defined any knife 2-inches or longer as a "dangerous knife" under state law.

Your local house member is elected locally in a district usually smaller than a city, so you can have an effect on them. Your call as a constituent really matters! Also your call coupled with many others can certainly effect the Speaker of the House in this case. So I would encourage you to call ASAP!
Click to expand...

I appreciate your explanation, thanks for taking the time.

While this bill would, from what I can surmise, actually be beneficial to me in particular and probably the knife community in general, as a rule I don't like the idea of concentrating legislative authority like this. Why not just let the Feds decide everything? (not looking for an answer here)

But I will consider it.
 
Because the feds want to make everything more restrictive and they are taking away our rights on a day to day basis!? Why let them make anything more restrictive if we can fight it? If no one stands up and says no this is not OK, then that must mean it is OK. Apathy is making this country no longer free. I can't believe no one else has posted that they have called. Even a 15 second phone call is too much effort for a bunch of knife nuts who are really probably the only ones that really care about something like this. When the knife nuts don't care, something is wrong with this country.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIVE IN GEORGIA TO CALL!!!

Shame on you if you didn't call as this is about the easiest civic duty you can do.

I'm off to get my parents to call.
 
Time zone diffs make it hard to call from the UK, but I will give it a shot tomorrow.
 
FLymon said:
While this bill would, from what I can surmise, actually be beneficial to me in particular and probably the knife community in general, as a rule I don't like the idea of concentrating legislative authority like this. Why not just let the Feds decide everything? (not looking for an answer here)

But I will consider it.
Click to expand...
- IMO, letting the towns decide what the local knife laws should be leaves you in risk of getting into trouble any time you travel. How can anyone reasonably know what towns would have a 2.5" limit versus towns with a 3.5" limit? It's like that now in MA. Whenever I travel there, I simply take a 2.5" knife with me. I don't want to risk a felony because some town decides that a 3.0" knife is too dangerous.
 
i didnt call mr.ralston but i did email him
Asking him to put up SB432 for a vote asap just
As asked ! ...
I have more questions about knife rights
So ill look up the website you have in your
Sig mr. Ritter ! Btw thanks for the work you
Do with knife rights !

Frank from new mexico
 
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