Constitutional Law

New group supporting knife rights

Webpage is here. I talked with Doug Ritter, the chairman, at the Gun Rights Policy Conference. It was interesting to go into the restrictions on knifes -- bars to this or that type, States that bar unlicensed CCW and have licenses only for carrying a concealed firearm, but not any other form of weapon, etc..

A knifesmith friend told me that "butterfly" knives were frequently banned, because they seemed exotic and foreign. He thought the design, if made well, was extremely sound and safe. The claim was sometimes made that they could be opened quickly with one hand (associating them with switchblades) but the fact was that most modern pocketknives can be opened that way, with no practice, whereas doing it with a butterfly is complicated and requires much practice. He saw the ban on butterfly knives as the knife "assault gun ban."

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on October 01, 2008 (boomark / email).