Press Releases
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Jul 10 2009
Senate Passes Hatch, Cornyn, Pryor Amendment to Keep Over-reaching Government Bureaucrats at Bay
WASHINGTON – Legislation by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) to prevent government bureaucrats from overstepping common sense and their proper bounds under the guise of safety has cleared the Senate.
Adopted as part of the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill (H.R. 2892), the amendment by Hatch, Cornyn and Pryor clarifies the definition of what types of knives can be classified as switchblades. It is a legislative response to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) proposal that would have, in effect, reclassified most pocketknives and pocket tools as switchblades.
“Without this amendment, there is a real danger that 80 percent of the pocketknives sold in the U.S. could be classified as illegal switchblades, which would hurt knife and tool manufacturers across the nation” Hatch said following the Senate’s vote late Thursday. “The unintended consequences of the CBP’s definition could be that state and federal criminal courts could construe Leatherman-type multi-tools equipped with one-hand opening features, as well as folding utility knives with studs on the blunt portions of the blade to assist with opening, to be illegal. That is absurd.”
For import and interstate commerce purposes, the CBP is seeking to reclassify all knives with assisted-opening mechanisms as switchblades. The Hatch, Cornyn and Pryor amendment makes it clear that one-hand opening assisted knives are not switchblades. This amendment’s exclusionary language conforms to the original intent of the existing statute.
Hatch said the amendment complies with the principles of the federal Switchblade Act of 1958, which clearly defined what constitutes a switchblade – a definition that the courts have consistently upheld over the years as a knife that is opened by activating a button on the handle.
“That law makes clear that, without a button, a knife is not a switchblade,” Hatch added. “This amendment will continue to prohibit switchblades, but not at the expense of knives that were never meant to be categorized as a switchblade.”
Adopted as part of the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill (H.R. 2892), the amendment by Hatch, Cornyn and Pryor clarifies the definition of what types of knives can be classified as switchblades. It is a legislative response to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) proposal that would have, in effect, reclassified most pocketknives and pocket tools as switchblades.
“Without this amendment, there is a real danger that 80 percent of the pocketknives sold in the U.S. could be classified as illegal switchblades, which would hurt knife and tool manufacturers across the nation” Hatch said following the Senate’s vote late Thursday. “The unintended consequences of the CBP’s definition could be that state and federal criminal courts could construe Leatherman-type multi-tools equipped with one-hand opening features, as well as folding utility knives with studs on the blunt portions of the blade to assist with opening, to be illegal. That is absurd.”
For import and interstate commerce purposes, the CBP is seeking to reclassify all knives with assisted-opening mechanisms as switchblades. The Hatch, Cornyn and Pryor amendment makes it clear that one-hand opening assisted knives are not switchblades. This amendment’s exclusionary language conforms to the original intent of the existing statute.
Hatch said the amendment complies with the principles of the federal Switchblade Act of 1958, which clearly defined what constitutes a switchblade – a definition that the courts have consistently upheld over the years as a knife that is opened by activating a button on the handle.
“That law makes clear that, without a button, a knife is not a switchblade,” Hatch added. “This amendment will continue to prohibit switchblades, but not at the expense of knives that were never meant to be categorized as a switchblade.”
