State and local laws surrounding the ownership and carrying of knives, whether as tools or self-defense weapons, are far more inconsistent than laws regarding gun ownership. This has inspired Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) to team up with Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) to reintroduce the Knife Owners Protection Act (KOPA).
As the Blaze described, KOPA was drafted in 2010 and introduced in 2013, notably proactive in protecting the rights of knife owners.
Moreover, KOPA appears to be inspired by the 1986 Firearm Owner Protection Act (FOPA), a similar bill protecting gun owners from inconsistent state and local laws.
KOPA, in essence, states that if possession of a knife is legal in the state to and from which the owner is traveling, and provided the knife is secured in accordance with the requirements set in KOPA, knife owners no longer face the potential of arrest while traveling between states.
"The government must not discourage interstate travel and commerce by subjecting law-abiding knife owners to the fear of prosecution under the myriad patchwork of state and local knife laws. Americans are guaranteed the right to protect themselves, their families, and their businesses by the Second Amendment, and we must ensure that those rights are protected. I'm thankful for Senator Lee's leadership on this issue in the Senate and for the support of my colleagues as we work to move this bill through Congress," said Rep. Biggs in his press release.
Doug Ritter, Chair of the Knife Rights group, added, "Those who travel across the country with knives for work, recreation, and self-defense are presently subject to arrest and prosecution under a confusing patchwork of inconsistent state and local laws. What is perfectly legal in one place may be a serious crime in another, resulting in forfeiture of the knife and carrying significant penalties, including jail time. Enforcement is not uniform even within jurisdictions and is too often subject to the vagaries of political expediency."
At the end of July, Representative Eli Crane's (R-AZ) Veteran Gun Rights Restoration Act, which would rule all previous submissions of VA data to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) as unlawful, passed out of committee.
