New Hampshire State Legislator Introduces Pro-Knife Bill

In today’s anti-knife world, it is a rare treat to see someone in politics promoting knife rights. In New Hampshire, State Representative Jennifer Coffey has introduced a bill to actually legalize “stilettos, switch knives, daggers and dirk-knives” for all law-abiding citizens there, according to KnifeRights.

This bill focuses the law on the criminal use of the knives, while removing the probation against them. Rep Coffey is a very pro-second amendment supporter of the rights to bear arms and outlines her position at SecondAmendmentSisters.org.

“Knife rights and gun rights both come under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Second Amendment refers to ‘arms,’ not guns.”

New Hampshire State Representative Jennifer Coffey

It will be interesting to watch this bill’s progress and CNJ will keep you updated.

Police in Scotland get new weapon in their fight to stop knife carrying

When you want folks to stop carrying knives what do you do, get a portable knife scanner, of course.

Yes, as reported in The Press and Journal and Herald Scotland, Scotland is providing every (police) force there one of these knife scanners. It seems of the 257,000 searches it conducted from April 08 to March 09 where 1,663 weapons (mostly knives) were confiscated, the Violence Reduction Unit’s ongoing anti-violence campaign just isn’t getting the job done. Now suspected knife carrying citizens will be scanned. In addition, Scottish courts have recently been given powers to impose four year sentences for knife carrying.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said the Scottish Gov. allows officers to scan people suspecting of carrying knives in public places. He further added,

“The message has to be clear: carry a knife and go to jail.”

Both newsources indicate the scanner can be set up in one minute, which leads me to believe it is not a handheld device and, instead, is probably similar to the one pictured as used in London, called the Gatescan Knife Arch, designed as a mobile walkthrough metal detector used to identify people carrying knives.

Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images Europe & Scanna.com

More bad press about knives

Hold on to your hats knife fans. It is only a matter of time before even stricter knife laws come our way.

Here’s the headlines of an article in today’s New York Times: KNIFE KILLINGS IN CITY INCREASED 50% IN 2008.

The bottom line is this quote from Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the New York Police Department-

“We may have made it harder for killers to get their hands on guns,” said Mr. Browne. “Knives are still easily and legally acquired.”