Voting along party lines, members of the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee passed SB 5444 7-4, declining to amend the bill to remove “knives.” As passed out of committee, this bill would make it illegal to possess ANY knife at a “transit station” including bus, train and trolley stops! It would be illegal to carry a knife on public transit, period, since you can’t board without going through a transit station! SB 5444 is now on the fast track to passage and being signed by the governor.
Members cannot say they weren’t warned that this would adversely affect their constituents who use public transit, especially the economically disadvantaged. Todd Rathner, Knife Rights Director of Legislative Affairs, testified about this troubling issue at the hearing last week. He also met with most of the committee members and spoke with the Chairwoman. Thank you all for sending hundreds of emails that they acknowledged were received. They knew exactly what they were doing. The bottom line is they didn’t care.
If this bill becomes law, and right now that seems quite possible, tradespeople would be unable to legally carry their knife used at work on public transport. Chefs would be unable to legally carry their knife roll on public transport. Simply carrying a pocket knife on public transport could get you arrested or ticketed. These are not “unintended” consequences. They knew full well that this is what will happen and did it anyway.
We will continue to lobby to get the bill amended on the House floor.
Knife Rights is America’s grassroots knife owners’ organization; leading the fight to Rewrite Knife Law in America™ and forging a Sharper Future for all Americans™. Knife Rights efforts have resulted in 44 bills passed repealing knife bans in 27 states and over 175 cities and towns since 2010.