Before It’s News
Gilbert, AZ -Ammoland.com)- After three years of effort, Knife Rights’ Gravity Knife and Switchblade Law Reform Bill, S6483-A/A9042-A, has been transmitted to Governor Cuomo. If you live, work or travel in New York, or plan to, CALL the Governor TODAY! The Governor now has 10 days (excluding Sunday) to sign or veto the bill (in other words, by end of the year), or allow it to become law without his signature.
The bill passed the Legislature by overwhelming margins, 61-1 in the Senate and 117-12 in the Assembly. This bill will prevent hundred’s of bogus arrests every week in New York City. Martin LaFalce of the Legal Aid Society called these arrests and prosecutions “the most discriminatory criminal justice practice in New York State.”
518-474-8390 and Press #3
be asked to leave a message.)
with him online. If you are a masochist, you can go to:
www.governor.ny.gov/contact and fill out the lengthy form
(for “Topic” select: “Criminal Justice” and for Subject: “S6483-A/A9042-A”).
WE RECOMMEND CALLING.
Brooklyn Defender Services
Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
JustLeadershipUSA
Legal Aid Society
Local One International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (AFL-CIO)
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – Legal Defense Fund
National Rifle Association
New York Civil Liberties Union (NY chapter of ACLU)
New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
New York State Defenders Association
New York Times Editorial Board
Safari Club International
Sheet Metal Workers International Association (AFL-CIO)
The Katal Center
UAW Local 2325 – Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (AFL-CIO)
Urban Justice Center
U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-8)
New York State’s Office of Court Administration called for reform of the law to prevent these arrests and prosecutions, although it has not specifically endorsed this bill.
S6483-A/A9042-A, sponsored by Assemblyman Dan Quart and Senator Diane Savino, add clarifying “bias-toward closure” exclusions to the state’s gravity knife switchblade definitions, similar to that included in the revision to the Federal Switchblade Act that Knife Rights helped pass in 2009. This clarifying exclusion will 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 New York State and commonly carried legally throughout 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 common pocket knives by claiming they are illegal Gravity Knives.
The Village Voice newspaper found two years ago that there had been as many as 60,000 gravity-knife prosecutions over the previous decade! Legal Aid Society has confirmed that hundreds of innocent pocket knife carriers are being arrested every week in New York City! You can read the Village Voice article at: http://bit.ly/1MiJbvv
About Knife Rights:
Knife Rights (www.kniferights.org) is America’s grassroots knife owners organization, forging a Sharper Future™ for all knife owners. Knife Rights is dedicated to providing knife owners an effective voice to influence public policy. In the past six years, Knife Rights has passed pro-knife legislation repealing knife bans in 15 states, stopped anti-knife legislation in 7 states and helped defeat ivory and mammoth ivory bans in 18 states. Knife Rights also leads a federal civil rights lawsuit against New York City and the New York District Attorney over their persecution of knife owners. Knife Rights is the Second Front in Defense of the Second Amendment™. Become a Knife Rights member and make a contribution to support the fight for your knife rights. Visit www.kniferights.org
