Gilbert, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- The Tennessee Senate, on a vote of 27-4, concurred on the House amended Knife Rights Knife Law Preemption bill, sending it to Governor Haslam.
Please call AND email Governor Bill Haslam and ask him to sign SB1015/HB0581: 615-741-2001 – bill.haslam@tn.gov
Knife Rights would like to thank the bill sponsors, Sen. Mike Bell and Rep. Vance Dennis, for their efforts to get this bill passed .
SB1015/HB0581 originally included language to repeal the Tennessee ban on switchblade knives and knives over 4-inches long, as well as enact Knife Law Preemption. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly, but was amended in the House after a last minute hyperbolic misinformation campaign in opposition to those repeal portions of the bill by the Tennessee Sheriff’s Association.
Testimony by their executive director included such outlandish remarks about switchblades as being intimidating because, “it even sounds like a shotgun rack, if you want to get right down to it.”
What that has to do with whether a knife should be legal or not, we are not at all sure. Moreover, an automatic sounds no different than most any other one-hand opening knife when opened aggressively. Perhaps the Sheriffs would like to outlaw Harleys because they sound more intimidating that a Vespa scooter?
As sometimes occurs in the legislative process, we were faced with the choice of moving what is arguably the most important part of the bill, preemption, and coming back next year on the rest, or seeing the bill die altogether. Knife Rights is pleased to “take the win” on Knife Law Preemption, our state legislative priority.
Tennessee is the seventh state to pass Knife Law Preemption since Knife Rights passed the first-in-the-nation Knife Law Preemption bill in Arizona in 2010, and the third state this year, following Kansas and Alaska.
Sponsors Bell and Dennis have assured us that they will be back next session with a bill to repeal the ban on switchblades and knives over 4-inches long and with time to counter the Tennessee Sherriff’s Association’s irrational misinformation, and your help, we are confident we will get it done.
Meanwhile, please help us finish off this effort. Call AND email Governor Bill Haslam and ask him to sign SB1015/HB0581: 615-741-2001 bill.haslam@tn.gov
When you call and email, keep it polite, short and to the point. Simply ask the Governor to please sign SB1015/HB0581 as soon as possible.
About: Knife Rights (www.KnifeRights.org) is America’s Grassroots Knife Owners Organization, working towards a Sharper Future for all knife owners. Knife Rights is dedicated to providing knife owners an effective voice in public policy. Become a Knife Rights member and make a contribution to support the fight for your knife rights. Visit www.kniferights.org
I hope that the legislation defines the kind of knives they are talking about. A set of knives for preparing food that can be found in anybody's kitchen will have some knives that have blades that are more than four inches long. As I was reading, I could only think of the kitchen. Surely this was taken into consideration in the wording of the bill. i know they were not talking about kitchen knives.
ReplyDeleteThe bill is considering knives that can be carried, not knives that are kept in the kitchen. Note, however, that serious attempts are being made in the UK to ban people from owning knives that have a point, especially kitchen knives, because they are used in crime in the UK.
ReplyDeleteShould we get rid of cars, too. People die in car accidents - does this mean cars are bad? Its one thing after another. Should we get rid of alcohol? Some people do bad things when they drink too much. How many other things need to be gotten rid of so all of us can be safe? Or do we need to learn and control ourselves to behave better? And to use things properly?
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