We have been following the legislative sausage as
two competing pieces of knife legislation grind their way through Congress. The first, the Interstate Transport Act (ITA), is sponsored the American Knife and Tool Institute, and the Knife Rights sponsored Knife Owner Protection Act (KOPA). KOPA contains within it both a repeal of the Federal Switchblade Act. The ITA does not, though AKTI has since helped introduce a
standalone bill which would do this. KOPA also contains language which closes the loophole which has allowed New York and New Jersey to thumb their noses at the Firearms Owner Protection Act – harassing and even arresting travelling gun-owners on multiple occasions. This language is known as a “right of action”, which is why we at TTAK have endorsed the Knife Owner Protection Act as our preferred bill before the United States Congress.
From Knife Rights:
Quote:
Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) has introduced S.3264, the Knife Owners’ Protection Act of 2018 (KOPA) including repeal of the Federal Switchblade Act. This is a companion to the House KOPA bill, H.R.84, introduced last year. Originally conceived and authored by Knife Rights in 2010 and first introduced in 2013, KOPA will remove the irrational restrictions on interstate trade in automatic knives that are legal to one degree or another in 44 states, while also protecting the right of knife owners to travel throughout the U.S. without fear of prosecution under the myriad patchwork of state and local knife laws.
