Once again, the New York Senate is playing politics with our Gravity Knife Law Reform Bill, S.4769A. There are only 4 days left in the session. Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan can bring the bill to the floor for a vote as early as today if he wants to.
If you live work or travel in New York, CALL or EMAIL Leader Flanagan TODAY and politely ask him to bring S.4769A to the floor for a vote. CALL or EMAIL TODAY!
Phone: 518-455-2071
Email: flanagan@nysenate.gov
Simply tell the person answering the phone, leave a message on voice mail or write in your email that you “respectfully request that Leader Flanagan please bring S.4769A to the floor for a vote.”
For an email Subject line use: Bring S.4769A to the floor for a vote
Knife Rights’ New York Gravity Knife Law Reform Bill passed in the Assembly by a vote of 128-1. This is the fourth year in a row that the Assembly has passed a bill to stop the abuse of the state’s gravity knife statute by New York City. Last year’s bill passed the Assembly 117-12. Last year the bill passed in the Senate 61-1.
This year’s bill removes “centrifugal force” from the definition of a gravity knife and adds “solely” to create a bright line definition that even overzealous New York City law enforcement and prosecutors can understand, as desired by the Governor. It would preclude the unconstitutionally vague “wrist flick” test that has resulted in over 60,000 arrests and prosecutions in New York City which the Governor himself described as “absurd” in vetoing last year’s bill on New Year’s Eve.
Any true gravity knife, as the term is understood everywhere but in New York, will still be prohibited by the “released from the handle or sheath thereof solely by the force of gravity” portion of the definition, but common folding knives could no longer be considered gravity knives.