Our sister sight, The Truth About Knives, has chronicled the ludicrously restrictive knife laws that resulted in 60,000 prosecutions in New York City over the last year for carrying simple pocket folders. But a New York Senate bill that would eliminate prosecutions for carrying most knives — legal in the other 49 states — that have a ‘bias toward closure,’ a common safety measure that keeps blades from opening in pockets, may be heading towards a vote. Knife Rights, which has been pushing the reform, is sounding the call for those who support the bill — and why wouldn’t you? — to contact the chairman of the Senate rules committee to move the bill forward . . .
March 21, 2016: The next hurdle to getting Knife Rights’ New York Knife Law Reform bill (S6483A) passed to end the widespread persecution of those carrying pocket knives in New York City is to get the Senate Rules Committee to pass the bill so it can be voted on by the full Senate.
If you live, work or travel in New York and New York City, please CALL or EMAIL the Chairman of the Rules Committee, Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, TODAY and simply deliver the message that you are “calling/writing to respectfully request that Leader Flanagan please schedule S6483A for a vote,” and then thank him. Please be POLITE and RESPECTFUL.
CALL Majority Leader Flanagan TODAY at:
518-455-2071EMAIL Majority Leader Flanagan TODAY at: [email protected]
Again, please be POLITE and RESPECTFUL, just deliver the message“I am calling/writing to respectfully request that Leader Flanagan please schedule S6483A for a vote,” and then thank him. That’s it, keep it short and simple and above all BE POLITE and RESPECTFUL
If Emailing, use the Subject: Please Schedule S6483A for Senate Vote
If you call, they may ask you the city and state where you live, for their call record. If you email, include your city and state. In either case, if you live out-of-state, explain how you work in, or travel to, New York / New York City.
S6483A adds clarifying bias-towards closure exclusions to the state switchblade and gravity knife definitions, similar to that included in the revision to the Federal Switchblade Act that Knife Rights helped pass in 2009. This clarifying exclusion should prevent the bogus Gravity Knife arrests and prosecutions of honest law-abiding individuals in New York City who are carrying common folding knives, tools that are legal to carry everywhere else in the U.S.
Neither Gravity Knives nor Switchblades have a bias towards closure found in common folding knives to keep the blade safely closed in the pocket. Only in New York City has the NYPD and District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. abused the states’ gravity knife law to prosecute those carrying simple pocket knives by claiming they are illegal Gravity Knives.
The City’s Village Voice newspaper found two years ago that there had been as many as 60,000 gravity-knife prosecutions over the past decade! Hundreds of innocent pocket knife carriers are being arrested every week! You can read the Village Voice article at: http://bit.ly/1MiJbvv
Federal Civil Rights lawsuit against New York City and District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. over these unconstitutional arrests and prosecutions continues with a trial date now scheduled for June 16, which will be just over five years since the lawsuit was filed. The quicker solution is to get S6483A passed.
STOP the Bogus NYC Pocket Knife Arrests and Prosecutions!
Please CALL or EMAIL Senate Majority Leader Flanagan TODAY!
Best part about the NYC knife laws? Fixed blade knives are totally legal. Tacticool neck knife in a kydex sheath? No problem. Box cutter with a loose hinge? That’s a felony.
“Switch blades” and “Gravity knives” are to anti knife people what “Assault weapons” are to Feinstein and Bloomberg.
To be honest nothing about the right to keep and bear arms excludes bladed weapons. Nor should it.
If the video accurately reflects how the City is testing “gravity knives”, then the testing is totally bogus. No folding knife can pass such a test–which is of course the desired outcome. A “gravity knife” is one where the blade opens enough just by the force of gravity to allow the holder to fully open the blade with a flick of the wrist. Using multiple Gs to get the blade to open does not qualify the knife as a gravity knife, a fact taht a California Court of Appeals was at pains to point out to SoCal prosecutors who would typically find some strong officer top flick the knife as hard as humanly possible, and if it opened, the case was made. That is no longer true.
I’ve always assumed that NYC banned all pocket knives. Fortunately, I haven’t been there in years, and have no reason to go back.
“If the video accurately reflects how the City is testing “gravity knives”, then the testing is totally bogus.”
I believe someone was being a smartass with that video.
As I understand it, the NYPD holds the knife in one hand and then ‘whips’ the hand to try to get the knife to open. If that fails, they whip the hand harder, up to the point where they are unable to whip it harder.
As you noted, most every lock-back pocket knife will open like that if you whip it hard enough…
(Cue the Devo video of ‘Whip It’)
That video is bogus and looks like someone who completely misunderstood the way the NYPD does it. They don’t grasp the blade,the grasp the handle.
Regardless, it’s the act of a heavy flick required to make the blade rotate and lock. How many worn lock-back knives have you seen that would fail that test? Sort of like how ATF will work on an AR for weeks trying to induce a double so they can charge the owner with manufacturing a machine gun. It’s complete BS, and falls well short of public service! But tyranny usually does…
I don’t understand, is that method of opening a knife supposed to give you some sort of advantage? No one would ever do that to open a knife.
This is idiocy.
The law also forbids knives which can be opened by centrifugal force. Yes I would argue that in fact the officers are relying on momentum and not either gravity or centrifugal force. The blade comes open when the hand stops the the weight of the blade or handle continues in compliance with Newton’s 1st Law.
TL;DR Hire a lawyer that passed physics.
pretty sure that the 60k refers to the last ten years if i’m reading ttak correctly.
not “over the last year.”
If that’s all it takes, a reasonably oiled axis lock on a Benchmade would be a “Go Straight to Jail” card. Pull the lock bar back, and the blade will drop out of the handle. These laws definitely need fixing. As in, flat elimination, nation wide.
While I have no reason to ever find myself in the Rotten Apple, the Adirondacks are worth the drive.
Essentially any folder will do that, including my tiny EDC Swiss Army Knife with a blade of less than 1.5 inches. Yet another reason New York is on my do not travel to enemy held territory list.
For gravity to have any relation to what was shown , it would require you be on the Jovian planetary surface.
Boninig knives, skinning knives, trimming knives,What does a gravity knife do?
Why, it “gravities,” of course!
“What does a gravity knife do?”
Held with the knife point down, push a button on the knife and the blade drops.
Does it drop on the ground and go off like a yeagerbomb?
No.
The blade stops at its fully extended position.
but if the knife is point down…
A friend of mine’s Dad who was in WWII brought back a war-prize souvenir of a Luftwaffe Gravity Knife. It was pretty cool. Incredible craftsmanship. I can see the attraction. One second you have a perfectly safe wooden handle in your hand, but with a flick of the wrist, you have a wicked-sharp double-edged blade.
That’s 60,000 in the last decade , not year .
Not that I wish to stick up,for them, that video is not how they test knives. Although the test used is just as incorrect , they simply use an exaggerated wrist snap or inertia opening .
Often taking many tries and sometimes multiple officers trying .
Come on guys. It’s NYC – they like prosecutions – it’s another form of government income for them.
Maybe one day, in a few generations, New York will rejoin the union.
Only after it gets bombed and occupied.
“Our sister SITE”
Cue hippy voice, “They were Out of site Man!”
I suppose my benchmade barrage would have New York Liberals dousing themselves with gasoline and starting themselves on fire in fear..
If only!
“Is Knife Rights Progress a Good Sign for Guns in New York?”
The fact that a state is pondering legislation to allow people to carry pocketknives is a good sign anyone who cares about TRTKABA in NY needs to MOVE.
Also, I’m sure NY will follow suit with NJ. In the Garden State, there are few rules on knives. Good? No. The hitch is that you cannot carry a knife as a weapon. Cops seem to have complete discretion in deciding if your knife is a weapon. There is not criteria. NJ LEOs are notorious for using a pocket knife as a pretense for arresting someone they want to arrest, but don’t have any other charge to bring.
Not to mention what would happen if you actually used a knife in self-defense.
That’s not really gravity, that’s inertia.
Comments are closed.