Hundreds of innocent pocket knife carriers are being arrested every week!

[tughillmcd]

From Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation

 

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: 

518-455-2071

 

EMAIL 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 state's 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! You can read the Village Voice article at: http://bit.ly/1MiJbvv

Hundreds of innocent pocket knife carriers are being arrested every week!

 

[ants]

How are common pocket knifes being lumped in with switch blades and gravity knifes ??

[16. ga hunter]

Because they don't have a positive locking device keeping them closed.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Nomad]

This has been going on for years, and it seems finally we may get NYC laws ( really there interpretation of them overturned ).

Here goes a gravity knife as used by paratroopers, is simply a knife with the blade inside the handle, a button is pressed ,( much like and out the front auto, with out a spring) and if the knife is tipped upside down the blade drops straight out and locks.

Gravity is what causes the blade to drop out.

NYC says any knife that can be opened with a wrist flick is a gravity knife. If it takes a cop ten tries, if it takes several cops until one can flick it open , you go to jail. I believe 60,000 arrests over the last ten years . Cops love it as it builds arrest numbers......

If your pocket clip is showing, NYPD considers that open carry and will stop you take the knife and " test" it .

Workmen , stagehands , visitors all make up the major number of arrests. Those folding razor blade knives every handyman carries, is a gravity knife down there.

An odd group of artists , stagehands, knife rights groups , and even the New York Times has come out against current law.

16 ga that's not quite right , almost all folders have a bias towards closer , be it ball detents on liner locks , to the spring on lockbacks , the design of the Axis lock, tri lock ,arc lock and on and on.

Take out your Buck 110, Spyderco Delica, Benchmade Griptilian, pinch the blade and pull it open a half inch or so and let go . It snaps back closed, the fact that it doesn't open when tipped upside down shows graivity won't open it . See below .

http://www.akti.org/resources/additional-definitions/

Edited June 8, 2016 by Larry302

[tughillmcd]

This has already passed in the Assembly and we need to make the push to get it onto the Senate Floor for a vote.

 

[maytom]

With all the security at the airports we have for how long now, who doesn't know "NOT" to bring a knife with them? Pretty basic stuff................

[GreeneHunter]

With all the security at the airports we have for how long now, who doesn't know "NOT" to bring a knife with them? Pretty basic stuff................

Don't go getting all Logical now .... people can't  stand it !  LOL

[tughillmcd]

With all the security at the airports we have for how long now, who doesn't know "NOT" to bring a knife with them? Pretty basic stuff................

 

This has nothing to do with airports. In NYC they are arresting people for carrying the pocket knifes that the majority of people carry. If they see a knife clip on your pocket, plan on having it checked.

This bill passed the Assembly 117 to 12. It was advanced to third reading in the Senate on 03/17/2016 and has had no more action there since. People need to make the calls and get this passed. The majority of NYC Democrats in the Assembly approved this. It needs to be fixed and time is running out.

Please make the call!

[BigGuyNY]

People are getting arrested for carrying the knives in NYC because they are ILLEGAL.  It's like any other law, if you violate it you get arrested.    

[airedale]

I once handled a so called switch blade knife, you pushed a button and the blade snapped out The first thing that came to my mind is what the Hell is the big deal about that? I can open a jackknife in a couple of seconds without practice. Must be a huge advantage to the millions of knife fighters  and slashers out there and the reason why the switchblade is illegal just like a pistol grip is some kind of huge advantage on an autoloading rifle. Just another  "Bull Crap" law that accomplishes little or nothing!

 

Al

[landtracdeerhunter]

I had a lawyer look at the New York State definition of a gravity knife in common wording.  It states any knife regardless of form, shape or size: that can be opened using wrist action by an officer of the law be deemed a gravity knife. Some officers have very strong wrist action and can open most any pocket knife. New York City knife laws are more stick than the states. The states also working on a mache law, but as far as I know have been tabled for now.

[tughillmcd]

People are getting arrested for carrying the knives in NYC because they are ILLEGAL.  It's like any other law, if you violate it you get arrested.    

 

These are pictures of some of the knifes that the DA in NYC has determined to be Switchblades. He is interpreting the same law that exists across the rest of the state. This bill only serves to stop the DA from enforcing what "HE" deems to be a switchblade, not what is commonly accepted to be one. Would you have the same opinion that they are "ILLEGAL" if this was being enforced in the rest of the state?

[Nomad]

People are getting arrested for carrying the knives in NYC because they are ILLEGAL. It's like any other law, if you violate it you get arrested.

g

People there are getting arrested because of overreach and a misinterpretation of the law as written and well , the laws of physics .....

Only in NYC would gravity have a different meaning the the rest of the universe !

[BigGuyNY]

I am not saying that I agree with the law, however if you are carrying a knife that is described as being illegal pursuant to the NYS Penal law and get arrested why would you be surprised.  Additionally, even though NYC is part of New York state, it is a totally different animal in regards to policing and enforcement of laws as opposed to the rest of the state.        

Edited June 9, 2016 by BigGuyNY

[Nomad]

I had a lawyer look at the New York State definition of a gravity knife in common wording. It states any knife regardless of form, shape or size: that can be opened using wrist action by an officer of the law be deemed a gravity knife. Some officers have very strong wrist action and can open most any pocket knife. New York City knife laws are more stick than the states. The states also working on a mache law, but as far as I know have been tabled for now.

I've read the penal code as well, and don't recall that wording. I'm late for the gym I'll post it later .

It does say gravity or centrifugal force , which is the issue as the latter is not gravity .

Keep in mind one can carry a fixed blade in NYC ....

Edited June 9, 2016 by Larry302

[BKhunter]

I live down here and they will harass you for anything. Pretty sure I was listening to  Steve Rinella podcast and he actually got detained when a cop saw his knife clip on his pocket while riding the subway. It's BS.

[tughillmcd]

I am not saying that I agree with the law, however if you are carrying a knife that is described as being illegal pursuant to the NYS Penal law and get arrested why would you be surprised.  Additionally, even though NYC is part of New York state, it is a totally different animal in regards to policing and enforcement of laws as opposed to the rest of the state.        

 

There is not a separate NYC law.

It is the same law as upstate.

It is how it is being interpreted, or should I say misinterpreted.  Even the majority of politicians in NYC think they are overstepping their authority by supporting this in the Assembly. If the NYC interpretation is allowed to stand, when will other DA's and police departments in other parts of the state start using the same interpretation? 

And just because they are a separate part of the state, they should not be allowed to enforce any law differently than any other part of the state. It is time to help those that live there, as what they test in NYC, eventually flows to upstate if left unchecked. If NYC want's to have their own interpretation of knives, then they should pass their own law, not change the intent of what is put in place to cover the entire state.

Edited June 9, 2016 by tughillmcd

[Jeremy K]

Shocking ! The government is targeting the object instead of the operator ,I see a trend developing.

[tughillmcd]

All of the banter is OK, but has anyone actually made calls trying to help fix this problem?

 

[BigGuyNY]

There is not a separate NYC law.

It is the same law as upstate.

It is how it is being interpreted, or should I say misinterpreted.  Even the majority of politicians in NYC think they are overstepping their authority by supporting this in the Assembly. If the NYC interpretation is allowed to stand, when will other DA's and police departments in other parts of the state start using the same interpretation? 

And just because they are a separate part of the state, they should not be allowed to enforce any law differently than any other part of the state. It is time to help those that live there, as what they test in NYC, eventually flows to upstate if left unchecked. If NYC want's to have their own interpretation of knives, then they should pass their own law, not change the intent of what is put in place to cover the entire state.

 

NYC is trying to change the law they are interpreting it in the manner the law is written and to what  is conducive to policing in a large city.  Right now gravity knives are illegal and the law is being enforced, if the bill passes and certain knives are then considered legal, citizens will be able to carry to their hearts delight.