Military or Law Enforcement ID is required to Ship to New York City or Dealer License
New York City Assaults & Uses Extortion Of Knife Retailers Who Carry Legal Knives.
The Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr., has targeted knife retailers including Eastern Mountain Sports, Home Depot, Paragon and Orvis and has confiscated these stores’ inventories including legal knives, which they claim are outlawed switchblades and gravity knives.
At a press conference on June 17, Vance stood in front of tables displaying the 1,300+ knives his office has taken from retailers. AKTI has identified many of those knives, and determined that they ARE NOT opened by gravity. Vance’s claim is a blatant distortion of the intent of the statute and a total misunderstanding of the knife design mechanisms involved.
What the DA is not telling the public is that his office’s interpretation of a gravity knife is ANY folding knife that can be opened with one hand - no matter how difficult.
Instead of understanding that such knives are used daily for activities including hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities as well as by electricians, construction workers and emergency personnel, New York is presuming all knives are carried only as weapons for unlawful use against another person.
The DA’s office claims homicides and knife use in non-fatal stabbings to be a serious problem in Manhattan. Yet according to the National Safety Council - in your lifetime you have a greater chance [1 in 81,701] of getting killed by lightning than residents of Manhattan had last year of getting killed with a knife [1 in 90,503].
What’s worse: The retailers have been forced by the DA’s office to pay more than $1.9 million - an estimate of their profits on sales of these knives in the past four years times 10! - in exchange for deferred prosecution. Failure to make these "contributions" also would mean that the targeted retailers would have almost certainly been made to turn over to the government their customer records and detailed sales records for each knife from their inventories.
"As part of the agreements and Office policy, nearly $1.9 million will be distributed to the City and State: 10 percent will be given to the State ($190K); 51 percent will be given to the City ($969,000); and the remainder ($741,000) set aside for our law enforcement partners," reads a press release sent by Vance’s office. "Those funds will be available to other DA’s offices who want to partner with the Manhattan DA’s Office to continue this fight against illegal (sic) knives." (Quote from Cyrus Vance Jr.’s press release dated June 17, 2010.) We strongly urge AKTI members to review the entire press release from the DA’s office, available at http://www.manhattanda.org/whatsnew/press/2010-06-17.shtml)
In this blatant grab for funds, Vance’s office is even pursuing knife retailers in other New York communities. The DA is offering to share these funds with other DAs in the Empire State if they will apply the same "shakedown" tactics in their own cities and counties.
But this doesn’t just impact New York-area knife advocates! AKTI has heard from an Internet retailer in a Western state who has been contacted by the New York County DA and told to make a "contribution" to the DA’s office or face being reported to the federal government for possible violation of interstate commerce laws.
What can you to do help stop this government grab for control and funds from legal knife sales?
First, the American Knife and Tool Institute is actively seeking methods to counter-act these actions. We will be looking for sponsors for a legislative solution along the lines other states and the 2009 Federal Switchblade Amendment. We may also be left with no alternative but to seek legal action.
These steps require time and money to implement effectively, and we need your help. Please contribute to our efforts and support what we do by becoming a member of AKTI, if you are not already. Our website also accepts contributions for this and other important work we do to stop on-going assaults on knife rights throughout the United States. See www.akti.org/membership for more information.
Second, if you are a citizen of New York state, we ask that you flood the office of the Manhattan District Attorney with letters, emails and phone calls of protest and outrage. · Protest that government resources are being used against legitimate businesses selling knives to law-abiding citizens who use them as tools, instead of finding fiscally responsible ways to solve their financial problems. · Outrage about the tactics used to intimidate and extort from New York citizens.
Individual letters played a major role in our success in defeating U.S. Customs’ effort to classify over 90% of all folding knives as switchblades last year. If you’d like a sample letter, go to www.akti.org.
The Chief Assistant District Attorney in charge of supervising this case is Daniel R. Alonso. His email is: alonsod@dany.nyc.gov.
Assistant District Attorneys involved in the investigation: Dan M. Rather - ratherd@dany.nyc.gov
District Attorney of New York County (Manhattan) - Cyrus R. Vance Jr. - vancec@dany.nyc.gov
The main office phone number is: 212-335-9000.
Mailing Address is:
New York County District Attorney’s Office One Hogan Place New York, NY 10013
These emails, phone calls and letters will make it obvious that the American people are not going to take this kind of abuse of power without fighting back.
Want to learn more?
We recommend these links for more information about the case.
New York Post: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/the_honed_depot_hW62UJ4nGJsohGk7E096kM
YOU ONLY HAVE THE RIGHTS YOU ARE WILLING TO FIGHT FOR
LETS GET THE FACTS ON NEW YORK STATE KNIFE LAWS:
S 265.20 Exemptions.
a. Sections 265.01, 265.02, 265.03, 265.04, 265.05, 265.10, 265.11,
265.12, 265.13, 265.15 and 270.05 shall not apply to:
6. Possession of a switchblade or gravity knife for use while hunting,
trapping or fishing by a person carrying a valid license issued to him
pursuant to section 11-0713 of the environmental conservation law...
It is incorrect to say they are illegal in New York because they are not, their is a City restriction on them but this does not restrict the rest of New York State.
MAYOR BLOOMBERG STATES:
"Cy Vance is very aggressive and understands the problems
and…..(babble babble) …. I don’t know the details he is trying to accomplish but if you have to guess vote with Cy Vance"
THE MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY, CYRUS VANCE, Jr. IS NOT STATING THE FACTS CORRECTLY, BLOOMBERG HAS NO CLUE AS TO WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE ISSUE & DOES NOT CARE.
The Second Amendment grants a right "to keep and bear arms"
June 28, 2010 US Supreme Court ruling says that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms applies to every jurisdiction in the country.
By a 5-4 vote the U.S. Supreme Court declared Monday, June 28, 2010 that individual arms rights under the Second Amendment apply and may be used to block enforcement of certain restrictive state and local arms control ordinances.
Furthermore, Cy Vance has no clue what a switchblade is and should start learning the legal definitions of such knives.
Amendment (1447) to the FY 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill H.R. 2892 was passed by the House of Representatives & approved by the U.S. Senate on October 20th, 2009
(5) a knife that contains a spring, detent, or other mechanism designed to create a bias toward closure of the blade and that requires exertion applied to the blade by hand, wrist, or arm to overcome the bias toward closure to assist in opening the knife.
This Modified the 50-year Old Federal Switchblade Act Modernized to Protect Americans with Knives.
This Added a Fifth Clause to Define Assisted Opening Knives as 100% Legal
THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM CONTINUES WITH NEW YORK VIOLATING CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS......
Cy Vance does not state that in New York there is exceptions for HUNTERS & FISHERMEN to have SWITCHBLADES, it is a series of half truths they use to attack businesses. The DA’s office use extortion against businesses because they know it would cost the companies more money to defend themselves in court against this blatant misuse of the law. The DA also knows that the court cases will take place in New York giving the judges a bias towards honest businesses and causing out of state businesses to endure huge expenses in defending themselves against these allegations.
THE STATISTICS THAT VANCE USES ARE OUTRIGHT LIES
Google: "knife crime in new york"
YOU WILL NOT FIND ANY INFORMATION
IF IT WAS SUCH A PROBLEM SUCH INFORMATION WOULD BE READILY AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET.
The majority of knife crime is premeditated, after rationally considering the timing or method of doing so, in order to either increase the likelihood of success, or to evade detection or apprehension, the crime is thought out and typically the attacker knows the victim and wants to inflect pain and suffering.
95% of knife crime is committed with fixed blade knives which are full tang, most are Kitchen Utensil Knives.
So explain to me why a 5% minority or pocket folders are being singled out as the problem to crimes?
If there is to be a ban on things that accurately depict the criminal activity then Kitchen Knives need to be made illegal if you accurately use the statistical data, which would be absurd just as any of these violations from New York are.
Responsible and law-abiding knife owners and sellers need your help to overcome the latest abuse of an overzealous government agency. Please join AKTI in fighting against the Manhattan DA’s office misinterpretation of the law. We will continue to update you about this situation; please also visit our website, www.akti.org, to learn more.
Thomas Jefferson quotes:
"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."
THINGS TO REMEMBER:
An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
If knives cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
If knives cause crime, then matches cause arson.
If knives cause crime, then cars drive people drunk.
The truth is people are the problem not objects.
Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
Criminals love knife control; it makes their jobs safer.
If you don’t know your rights, you don’t have any.
Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.
When you remove the people’s right to bear arms, you create slaves.
