From our friends at BLADE FORUMS...

[Tant01]

I normally don't mass email members, but we need to take action on this NOW!!!!

Spark
Owner, BladeForums.com

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URGENT ACTION ALERT: Write your Senators NOW to STOP funding for Customs' Pocket Knife Grab.

Knife Rights News Slice Vol. 2 Number 11

Write your Senators NOW to STOP funding for Customs' Pocket Knife Grab. As you are aware, Customs is proposing to prohibit the import of assisted and one-hand openers and in the process has broadly re-defined what a Switchblade is to cover almost all pocket knives, with potential far-reaching consequences. Our best bet to stop Customs in the short term is for Congress to prevent them from spending a dime to implement their proposed ruling. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Bill will be taken up by the Senate on Tuesday, July 7th. We need your help NOW to rally support for an amendment to stop funding for this Customs rulemaking.

Timing has not worked in our favor as D.C. has become a ghost town due to the July 4th recess. We will have two days to make this work upon their return. Your emails to Senate offices will get their attention and be a huge help as our lobbyists and legislative representatives work Monday and Tuesday to get an amendment introduced and voted into the DHS Appropriations Bill. Contacting Senator Patty Murray [D-WA] and Senator George Voinovich [R-OH] is particularly important because they are ranking members on the Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Homeland Security. Still, contacting your own Senators is also very important and their support is needed as well.

Pass this Action Alert to everyone you know and urge them to ACT NOW! Post on every online forum and social networking site you can. We need to generate thousands of emails before next Monday. If you have a personal relationship with any Senators or their staff, now is the time to call (well, maybe Monday since nobody is in the office now). Personally know a radio or TV talk show host? Please have them contact me (Knife Rights - Contact ) so we can reach out to a wider audience. Help save our Knife Rights; STOP this ridiculous and illegitimate rulemaking by Customs. WRITE TODAY!

Please note that multiple members of a household can and should each write separately.

We encourage you to use the two sample letters below and copy and paste into the email forms. If you want to further personalize your letter, please be POLITE and NON-PARTISAN. The "enemy" is Customs, not the Administration. We can only succeed with the support of both parties. DO NOT yell, don't rant and don't be rude! Stay focused and stay on message. This is NOT the time or place to express your frustrations or make any other political points or complaints.

Just four simple emails can make a BIG difference!

NOTE that there are TWO different letters , one for Senators Murray and Voinovich and one for your own two Senators (unless Murray or Voinovich happens to be your own Senator):

Email forms for Senators Murray and Voinovich can be found here:

Senator Murray: E-Mail Senator Murray - U.S. Senator Patty Murray - Washington State
Senator Voinovich: .: United States Senator George Voinovich :: Contact :.

1. Sample Letter for Senators Murray and Voinovich:

RE: U.S. Customs & Border Protection Proposed Revocation of Ruling Letters and Revocation of Treatment Relating to the Admissibilty [sic] of Certain Knives with Spring-Assisted Opening Mechanisms

Dear Senator [Murray or Voinovich, as appropriate],

As a pocket knife owner, I am extremely concerned about the recently announced Customs ruling, which wrongly interprets federal law and would prohibit the importation of many of the sporting and utility knives that I use and enjoy. Their overly broad and novel new interpretation of what a Switchblade is could make me a felon for carrying a simple pocket knife. Additionally, the economic impact of the ruling on the knife trade would be severe. Pocket knives utilizing assisted or one hand opening technology are the dominant share of the market, and prohibiting the use of the technology would force significant job losses, and the potential loss of entire businesses.

This type of Federal regulation is totally unnecessary, and I strongly urge you to work with representatives from Knife Rights and other and advocacy organizations on an appropriate restriction to prevent Customs from implementing this ruling.

Knife Rights and other advocacy organizations will be contacting your office to discuss with you concrete ways to prevent Customs from acting on their intention to reclassify sport/utility knives as switchblades.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

[Individual Signature]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2. Locate YOUR OWN Senators and their email forms here:

U.S. Senate: Senators Home

Sample Letter to YOUR Senators:

RE: U.S. Customs & Border Protection Proposed Revocation of Ruling Letters and Revocation of Treatment Relating to the Admissibilty [sic] of Certain Knives with Spring-Assisted Opening Mechanisms

Dear Senator [Insert Senator’s Name],

As a pocket knife owner, I am extremely concerned about the recently announced Customs ruling, which wrongly interprets federal law and would prohibit the importation of many of the sporting and utility knives that I use and enjoy. Their overly broad and novel new interpretation of what a Switchblade is could make me a felon for carrying a simple pocket knife. Additionally, the economic impact of the ruling on the knife trade would be severe. Pocket knives utilizing assisted or one hand opening technology are the dominant share of the market, and prohibiting the use of the technology would force significant job losses, and the potential loss of entire businesses.

This type of Federal regulation is totally unnecessary, and I strongly urge you to support efforts by Knife Rights and other advocacy organizations to prevent Customs from acting on their intention to reclassify sport/utility knives as switchblades.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

[Individual Signature]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(....Gratuitous advertising deleted....)


Personally... They can have mine when they pry it "...from my cold dead hands."

[Garland]

This is getting mass emailed...

What the ****! How could I have not heard this before...
Time to put the boots to this with the quickness!

[Garland]

Honourable Senator Hatch, (I also wrote Bennett)

It is with a sad sort of irony that I write this to you on Independence day, but I recently heard of a ruling by Customs officials that has wide spanning effects that may threaten my second ammendment rights and carries the seemingly absurd implication of making me a felon should I choose to carry a pocket knife. Needless to say, I feel like my Independce is very much in jeapordy and you are in a position to make a stand for some very rudimentary liberties which are held almost for granted by many Utahns and many individuals throughout our great nation. This ruling wrongly interprets Federal law and would make sweeping generalizations about what would constitute a "Switchblade" type knife, including many legitamite tools and sporting knives. Not only would this new measure be injurious to hunters and sportsmen or those who choose to carry a one-hand open pocket folder or assisted opening utility knife (which comprise the vast majority of today's knife market) it would also hurt the welfare of those who manufacture and sell such items, very likely costing them their jobs and their livelihood. To reclassify a simple pocket knife as a switchblade could be a veritable Pandora's box when it comes to defending our rights to bear arms, as it effectively limits even our rights to carry simple tools.

Sir, I implore you and your honourable peers to take a stand for our freedom and our rights in this matter. Please prevent Customs from acting on their intention to reclassify sporting/utility knives as switchblades. Please don't let this eggregious encroachment on our civil liberties go unanswered.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Sincerely,
Garland Dennis Hummel

[kingoftheforest]

Won't be long before kitchen knives won't be allowed to have pointy ends like the Brits are trying to pass laws for.

[Tant01]

"I screwed up earlier and mixed up the two organizations Knife Rights & AKTI in my previous mailing. Solely my error - Sorry about that! I hate to send bulk email at all, much less multiple ones. Below are statements from both AKTI and Knife Rights, PLEASE TAKE ACTION!"

Leave feedback in this thread - URGENT ACTION ALERT: Write your Senators NOW! - BladeForums.com

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL! UNSUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS EMAIL!!!

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AKTI STATEMENT -
AKTI Opposes U.S. Customs' attempt to classify assisted-opening knives and all one-hand opening knives as switchblades.

Customs' proposal will make criminals of 35.6 million Americans
The definition of a switchblade or automatic knife has been clear and explicit in federal law since 1958. There have been several state court cases in California, Texas, Illiinois and Michigan on the issue of assisted-opening knives. Every judge in every case has ruled they are not switchblades because they do not possess an activating button on the handle.

In fact, AKTI' s bill on the Texas governor's desk now clarified their statute, reaffirming the 50-year old federal definition, and clearly distinguishing one-hand openers and assisted-openers from knives classified as switchblades or automatics.

Be warned … AKTI fears that all folding knives will be at risk. U.S. Customs’ proposal indicates it is directed at only the importers of assisted-opening knives. However, the language used in their revocation document is so broad and uses virtually every term ever applied to any knife that opens with one hand. We fear that they are attempting to bypass the will of Congress and that once they succeed in getting assisted-openers defined as switchblades, they could move against all folding knives. These include multi-tools, traditional pocket knives, one-hand openers, and assisted-openers.

If you want to view a video of what AKTI fears about this situation and about your being branded a criminal if you carry a folding knife, go to … YouTube - Help Us Defend Your Knife Rights

AKTI's Knife User Data ( http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-KnifeUserData.pdf ) documents that at least 35.6 million folding knife users would become de facto criminals if Customs has their way. AKTI's Talking Points ( http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-CustomsTalkingPoints.pdf ) tells you in simple language what Customs is really trying to do. Share these documents with other knife owners and your elected representatives at the federal and state level. . When you are write letters or emails on this issue, you can use this data.

AKTI learned, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on June 10, 2009, that U.S. Customs has denied the AKTI request for an extension of the comment period.

We must now ask our national lawmakers to help us. That should be the first letter you write.
You can find out who your lawmakers are and their email addresses by going to …

Find your congressional officials
Congress.org - Home

Review our communication suggestions
American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI) Keeping Knives in American Lives

This is the absolute # 1 action step you must take TODAY.
Please use one of the following letters to email your lawmakers (You can also follow up with a copy sent via regular mail or fax to help reinforce your request. If you know the lawmaker, please call them. Even if you don’t know them, an assistant will make a note of your concern and convey it to the lawmaker.)

Be sure to personalize your letters
Individual Letter to Legislators as Word Document (.doc)
http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-Legislator...dualLetter.doc

Individual Letter to Legislators as Rich Text File (.rtf)
http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-Legislator...dualLetter.rtf

Company Letter to Legislators as Word Document (.doc)
http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-LegislatorCompanyLetter.doc

Company Letter to Legislators as Rich Text file (.rtf)
http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-LegislatorCompanyLetter.rtf


Now … if you have the time, please also voice your objections to U.S. Customs itself. You can only use regular mail to them. Your letter must be received in the Washington Customs office officially by June 21st (but that’s a Sunday, so shoot for June 20 or sooner).

Address your letter to …

19 CFR Part 177
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Office of International Trade, Regulations and Rulings
Attention: Intellectual Property and Restricted Merchandise Branch
Mint Annex, 799 Ninth St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20229

Please send a copy of your email or letter to AKTI so we can keep track of totals. This will be powerful information that allows us to tell Customs we know how much opposition there is to their proposed action.

While U.S. Customs has officially denied our request (on June 10) for an extension of the comment period, we believe that letters sent to them objecting to their proposed action would still be helpful. You can use the following short models. Please make sure they get to the U.S. Customs office in Washington, DC by Saturday, June 20 (Note that Customs will only accept letters sent via regular mail.)

Be sure to personalize your letters
Individual Response to Customs as Word Document (.doc)
http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-Individual...etoCustoms.doc

Individual Response to Customs as Rich Text file (.rtf)
http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-Individual...etoCustoms.rtf

Company Response to Customs (as Word Document) .doc
http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-CustomsCompanyLetter.doc

Company Response to Customs (as Rich Text File) .rtf
http://akti.org/PDFS/AKTI-CustomsCompanyLetter.rtf

Click for more information on how you can help Save Our Knives
American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI) Keeping Knives in American Lives

------------------------------
KNIFE RIGHTS STATEMENT!

URGENT ACTION ALERT: Write your Senators NOW to STOP funding for Customs' Pocket Knife Grab.

Knife Rights News Slice Vol. 2 Number 11

Write your Senators NOW to STOP funding for Customs' Pocket Knife Grab. As you are aware, Customs is proposing to prohibit the import of assisted and one-hand openers and in the process has broadly re-defined what a Switchblade is to cover almost all pocket knives, with potential far-reaching consequences. Our best bet to stop Customs in the short term is for Congress to prevent them from spending a dime to implement their proposed ruling. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Bill will be taken up by the Senate on Tuesday, July 7th. We need your help NOW to rally support for an amendment to stop funding for this Customs rulemaking.

Timing has not worked in our favor as D.C. has become a ghost town due to the July 4th recess. We will have two days to make this work upon their return. Your emails to Senate offices will get their attention and be a huge help as our lobbyists and legislative representatives work Monday and Tuesday to get an amendment introduced and voted into the DHS Appropriations Bill. Contacting Senator Patty Murray [D-WA] and Senator George Voinovich [R-OH] is particularly important because they are ranking members on the Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Homeland Security. Still, contacting your own Senators is also very important and their support is needed as well.

Pass this Action Alert to everyone you know and urge them to ACT NOW! Post on every online forum and social networking site you can. We need to generate thousands of emails before next Monday. If you have a personal relationship with any Senators or their staff, now is the time to call (well, maybe Monday since nobody is in the office now). Personally know a radio or TV talk show host? Please have them contact me (Knife Rights - Contact ) so we can reach out to a wider audience. Help save our Knife Rights; STOP this ridiculous and illegitimate rulemaking by Customs. WRITE TODAY!

Please note that multiple members of a household can and should each write separately.

We encourage you to use the two sample letters below and copy and paste into the email forms. If you want to further personalize your letter, please be POLITE and NON-PARTISAN. The "enemy" is Customs, not the Administration. We can only succeed with the support of both parties. DO NOT yell, don't rant and don't be rude! Stay focused and stay on message. This is NOT the time or place to express your frustrations or make any other political points or complaints.

Just four simple emails can make a BIG difference!

NOTE that there are TWO different letters , one for Senators Murray and Voinovich and one for your own two Senators (unless Murray or Voinovich happens to be your own Senator):

Email forms for Senators Murray and Voinovich can be found here:

Senator Murray: E-Mail Senator Murray - U.S. Senator Patty Murray - Washington State
Senator Voinovich: .: United States Senator George Voinovich :: Contact :.

1. Sample Letter for Senators Murray and Voinovich:

RE: U.S. Customs & Border Protection Proposed Revocation of Ruling Letters and Revocation of Treatment Relating to the Admissibilty [sic] of Certain Knives with Spring-Assisted Opening Mechanisms

Dear Senator [Murray or Voinovich, as appropriate],

As a pocket knife owner, I am extremely concerned about the recently announced Customs ruling, which wrongly interprets federal law and would prohibit the importation of many of the sporting and utility knives that I use and enjoy. Their overly broad and novel new interpretation of what a Switchblade is could make me a felon for carrying a simple pocket knife. Additionally, the economic impact of the ruling on the knife trade would be severe. Pocket knives utilizing assisted or one hand opening technology are the dominant share of the market, and prohibiting the use of the technology would force significant job losses, and the potential loss of entire businesses.

This type of Federal regulation is totally unnecessary, and I strongly urge you to work with representatives from Knife Rights and other and advocacy organizations on an appropriate restriction to prevent Customs from implementing this ruling.

Knife Rights and other advocacy organizations will be contacting your office to discuss with you concrete ways to prevent Customs from acting on their intention to reclassify sport/utility knives as switchblades.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

[Individual Signature]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2. Locate YOUR OWN Senators and their email forms here:

U.S. Senate: Senators Home

Sample Letter to YOUR Senators:

RE: U.S. Customs & Border Protection Proposed Revocation of Ruling Letters and Revocation of Treatment Relating to the Admissibilty [sic] of Certain Knives with Spring-Assisted Opening Mechanisms

Dear Senator [Insert Senator’s Name],

As a pocket knife owner, I am extremely concerned about the recently announced Customs ruling, which wrongly interprets federal law and would prohibit the importation of many of the sporting and utility knives that I use and enjoy. Their overly broad and novel new interpretation of what a Switchblade is could make me a felon for carrying a simple pocket knife. Additionally, the economic impact of the ruling on the knife trade would be severe. Pocket knives utilizing assisted or one hand opening technology are the dominant share of the market, and prohibiting the use of the technology would force significant job losses, and the potential loss of entire businesses.

This type of Federal regulation is totally unnecessary, and I strongly urge you to support efforts by Knife Rights and other advocacy organizations to prevent Customs from acting on their intention to reclassify sport/utility knives as switchblades.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

[Individual Signature]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -