Why did you form Knife Rights?
We organized Knife Rights in December of 2006 as a result of an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal article (read the WSJ article in PDF format (1 MB download) or in standard web format as published in another paper). This article served as the catalyst that focused our attention on the threat. We recognized that those with an anti-knife agenda strategically planted the seeds for this article with a reporter they knew would likely end up writing it with the slant they were looking for. Research reveals he’d been their pawn before, writing numerous anti-firearms articles. By doing so those opposed to freedom significantly escalated the stakes. That isn’t being paranoid; it’s simply how the system works.
That article went unanswered in a timely manner by any of the existing knife organizations. When existing organizations finally responded it was too late and never appeared in the newspaper or in any of the papers that subsequently re-published that article. This suggested to us that knife owners weren’t adequately organized at the grassroots level. Had an article like that dealing with firearms appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the NRA and other grassroots Second Amendment organization would have been all over it within 24 hours. We felt that if we didn’t get organized as knife owners, it would only be a matter of time before articles and attacks such as this resulted in more and more attempts at legislating what we can own and carry. If we just waited until the crisis occurred, it would be too late. We recognized the need to get started organizing the grassroots in order to be ready when the time came. You cannot build up an organization overnight that is to be a political force to be reckoned with. If you wait until it’s needed to protect our freedoms, it’ll be to late.
That turned out to be a sound strategy. Because we had an organization and plan in place a few years later, when the first federal effort to restrict knives (in modern times) occurred with no warning and little time to organize opposition (Customs’ Pocket Knife Grab in May of 2009), Knife Rights was ready to fight and, with cooperation from our partners and others, succeed in preventing it from infringing on our knife rights.
By building a larger and more effective advocacy organization we will be prepared for the future fights that are sure to come. By establishing an aggressive legislative agenda and pursuing it to the benefit of our members and all knife owners we are better prepared for future fights. It is far better to be well prepared to oppose such attempts ahead of time than to be scrambling to do so with no clout. It’s far better to take action than to always be reacting and on the defensive. You also cannot always depend upon prevailing with logic and rational arguments. Education is often not enough when the enemy is driven by emotions, not reality. Sometimes the only thing that matters is how many letters you can deliver to a legislator’s or congressman’s office. Even as a young organization, we have proven that we can deliver the goods.
Knife Rights’ major successes to date (June 2010):
- Congress Amends Federal Switchblade Act
to Protect Assisted and One-Hand Openers – Read More… - Arizona Knife Preemption Law
First in the Nation – Launches National Knife Law Preemption Campaign – Read More… - New Hampshire Knife Rights Bill
Legalizes Switchblades, Dirks, Daggers & Stilettos – Read More…
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
— Thomas Jefferson
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I already pay to belong to the NRA. Why don’t they do this? Isn’t all this related to their battles against the anti-gun forces and in support of the Second Amendment? Isn’t this just another Second Amendment fight?
You are absolutely spot on in noting that there is a close relationship between the anti-gun advocates and the anti-knife advocates, they are one and the same. However, the NRA has its hands full with its own battles and it is specifically firearms oriented and until recently hasn’t seen the need to take on knife issues.
That stance changed when we went up against Customs and the NRA became an integral part of the coalition that was formed to oppose Customs. That involvement was the culmination of years of effort on the part of Knife Rights to engage the NRA on knife rights issues. One of our earliest supporters and a Cornerstone Founding Member was then President of the NRA, Sandra Froman. The NRA has been supportive of Knife Rights’ legislative efforts ever since and supported Knife Rights with resources and funds in the launch of our National Knife Law Preemption Campaign in Arizona. However, with regards to knives, it is Knife Rights that leads and the NRA lends their much welcome support.
I think it’s safe to say that most firearms owners also own and carry knives and we anticipate that the majority of our membership as we grow the organization will also be NRA members because they already understand what this fight for our freedoms is all about. However, there are millions more knife owners than there are gun owners and many of those couldn’t care less about guns and aren’t about to join the NRA. Knife owners need their own grassroots organization.
Having said that, gun owners should note that the recent success of the NRA and the NSSF in opposing anti-gun legislation and in passing pro-gun legislation has tremendously frustrated the anti-gun forces. Still, those anti-Second Amendment forces and organizations need to continue their battle to continue to reap the millions of dollars of contributions they solicit from the public and from their extremely wealthy international gun control proponents. Attacking knives is just another gambit in their strategy and a way they hope to gain some "easy" victories that will help them down the road with their ultimate goal, banning guns.
The gun control forces are quite willing to take the long view and one avenue towards their ends is to make progress in restricting other "weapons" where they perceive that opposition may not be so great. If they succeed in restricting knife ownership and carry, then a few more years down the road they can argue more convincingly that having removed these relatively less dangerous weapons from society, it’s about time to do the same for ever so more deadly firearms. So, the reality is that it’s the same war, just a different battle ground. We like to say that “Knife Rights is the Second Front in the Battle in Defense of the Second Amendment™”.
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Since when did "tactical" become a four letter word?
Since the anti-knife forces decided to try and make it so. It’s all about semantics. If you can define a word in a way that supports your agenda and then demonize it so that it gains a negative connotation, you win. This is directly analogous to what was done with the term "assault rifle" by the anti-gun forces. It was a term that had no negative connotations until they redefined it, made it a negative and tried to apply it to an even wider range of rifles. They do this by way of the type of highly biased articles that started this whole effort. What is so sadly ironic is that the Wall Street Journal has for years battled against exactly this same tactic with regards "assault rifles," arguing that it was an abuse of the terminology for nefarious ends. Then they go a do the exact same thing with the term "tactical" with regards to knives.
If we let the them define the issues, if we let them get away with redefining terms to support their agenda and thereby changing the wider community’s perspective on knives, they will win. Only a well-planned and energetic response from an advocacy group with plenty of clout can counter such lies and deception.
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Since when do safety features like a locking blade and one-hand opening make a knife deadly?
This is going to start sounding like a broken record.
Since the anti-knife forces decided to try and make it so. It’s all about semantics. If you can define a word in a way that supports your agenda and then demonize it so that it gains a negative connotation, you win. By noting that these "deadly" tactical knives have locking blades and one-hand opening, by a convoluted and inappropriate leap of logic, these safety features become a bad thing. In many countries in the world, locking blades and/or one-hand opening knives are illegal for this same ridiculous logic. It doesn’t prevent knives from being sued for crimes, but that’s no real surprise to any student of humanity. But, ridiculous or not, if they succeed in defining the term and succeed with this illogical extension, they win.
It’s been said that if folding knives had never existed and were suddenly introduced today, that OSHA and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission would outlaw non-locking blade folding knives for safety reasons. Many company safety policies already do exactly that for on-the-job use. Regardless of how you personally feel about the issue for your own knives, pro- or anti-lock blade, it is a good thing that we have that choice and it would be absurd for the government to outlaw locking blades.
If we let the them define the issues, if we let them get away with redefining terms to support their agenda and thereby changing the wider community’s perspective on knives, they will win. Only a well-planned and energetic response from an advocacy group with plenty of clout can counter such lies and deception.
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It seems some manufacturers play right into the anti’s hands with their marketing that emphasizes violence and mayhem possibilities. Can Knife Rights to anything about that?
You’re right about the unintended consequences of this sort of marketing. Knife Rights and other organizations can bring some pressure on the industry to clean up their act in this regard. Companies will respond to pressure, especially from their consumers. If Knife Rights gathers sufficient membership, it can be a lot more effective at encouraging responsible marketing messages. It’s often difficult for competitors to listen to or cooperate with each other in this regard, no matter how much sense it makes. It’s took quite some time for this to occur in the firearms industry, but as they realized how badly they were shooting themselves in the foot in the big picture, virtually everyone climbed on the bandwagon and now common sense marketing ground rules promote responsible use of guns. Being outside of the industry, Knife Rights should be able to help influence a similar change in knife marketing.
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Will Knife Rights have its own knife magazine?
There are already a number of very good knife magazines available and given the considerable expense involved and limited market, we have difficulty seeing what benefit there would be to adding another to the mix. Moreover, we are very appreciative of the tremendous support we have received from these publications.