Not a Switchblade --

Knife bill passes

The U. S. Senate's Solution to Customs' proposal to ban assisted-opening, one-hand-opening and other folding knives (pocketknives) has passed in both the House and the Senate, and the President signed the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2892) for FY 2010 Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009 that includes a permanent "fix" so that any folding knife with a bias toward closure cannot be declared a switchblade by U.S. Customs.

You can keep and use your folding knives permitted in your state. With the vote in the U.S. Senate and the President's signature of H.R. 2892, the American Knife & Tool Institute has accomplished the seemingly impossible. The Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, with Senate Amendment 1447 language still intact, passed both the Senate and the House. This bipartisan amendment was cosponsored by 20 U.S. Senators, led by John Cornyn of Texas, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Orrin Hatch of Utah.

The Senate amendment essentially adopted the switchblade exception language which AKTI sponsored in Texas and that was signed by Texas Governor Perry on June 18, 2009. U.S. Customs, thanks to an outpouring of grassroots support and the intervention of more than 20 U.S. Senators concerned about the potential financial devastation to the entire sporting knife industry, became active supporters of the amendment. AKTI estimates that the folding knives saved are 80 percent of current sales in the
nearly $1 billion sporting knife industry.