Knife Rights Protection Act Introduced in U.S. Senate
OutdoorHub 01.27.14
Senators Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have introduced a complementary Senate version of Knife Rights’ Knife Owners’ Protection Act, S.1955 (KOPA), This follows the introduction of Knife Rights’ KOPA bill, H.R.3478, in the House last November. The Senate bill is based on the House bill as conceived and developed by Knife Rights, although it is formatted according to Senate rules. Knife Rights worked diligently with the Senate sponsors to ensure the Senate bill was fully aligned with the original House KOPA bill.
The result of three years of effort, Knife Rights conceived, drafted and developed the Knife Owners’ Protection Act as the first proactive pro-knife federal legislation introduced in the nation’s history.
Knife Rights Chairman Doug Ritter explained, “having KOPA bills in both houses of Congress was a key Knife Rights strategy from the start, increasing the chances for legislative success. Accomplishing this without substantive differences between the two bills further enhances the likelihood that the law eventually enacted will accomplish fully our goal of protecting America’s knife owners.”
“Knives are an essential tool for hunters and various occupations and the right to carry them with you when you’re on the road is something that should be protected,” said Enzi. “A few overzealous states or cities shouldn’t be in the business of punishing folks for what is legal in most parts of the country just because they passed through their jurisdiction. A sportsman from Wyoming shouldn’t fear they are going to be charged, fined, or arrested because they are lawfully traveling with a hunting or pocket knife across state lines.”
“This is a commonsense provision that protects responsible knife owners and respects the rules in different jurisdictions. This bill would go a long ways in protecting innocent travelers from governmental overreach,” said Lee.
Ritter concluded, “This legislation will solve a real and growing problem that faces every knife owner traveling throughout America–the threat of arrest and prosecution under misguided local laws merely for possessing knives during lawful travel.” KOPA will protect law-abiding knife owners traveling throughout the U.S. from a patchwork of restrictive state and local laws. As long as possession of the particular knife is legal where the journey starts and ends, and provided the knife is secured in accordance with KOPA, a knife owner would no longer be threatened with arrest simply for traveling from one place to another.
Read S.1955 at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113s1955is/html/BILLS-113s1955is.htm.
Read the originally filed House version H.R.3478 at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113hr3478ih/html/BILLS-113hr3478ih.htm.
A FAQ on KOPA with additional details and background can be found at: http://bit.ly/1arZIa0 .
