Q&A Outdoors Conversation with Doug Ritter, Knife Rights

Doug Ritter

The Federal Switchblade Act was passed in 1958. And it interferes with interstate commerce and switchblades. The original intent of the act was basically shut down switchblades in the United States, because they were some sort of evil menace.

We have been repealing knife bans in the states since 2010- 44 bills repealing knife bans in 28 states so far. But we've always had the Federal Switchblade Act out there.

While manufacturers have worked around it and remained legal, it still interferes with the business, producing, selling and obtaining switchblades by citizens, even where they're legal. So after the Bruen decision, last summer, we saw the opportunity to finally go after the unconstitutional Federal Switchblade Act.

I think it's important to recognize that nothing in the Second Amendment says anything about firearms. From the days of this country's founding knives have been a part of arms. So we're suing the federal government in the Northern District of Texas, to have the Federal Switchblade Act - the interstate commerce portions - and the outright bans of switchblades on Native American reservations, and in the territories, declared unconstitutional. That will remove the impediment towards folks being able to obtain switchblades, which are just another knife.

And a knife is just another arm. There's nothing in the history and tradition of laws in the United States about banning knives of any particular sort.

There have been modern bans of knives. Post Civil War, we saw bans on Bowie knives and other long knives, particularly in the southern states.

In the 1950s, we saw the passage of the Federal Switchblade Act; we saw a minority of the states pass restrictions or bans on switchblade.

And the Supreme Court said history and tradition counts- as of the founding of this country -and when the Constitution was written. There's no “history and tradition” banning knifes - and switchblades are just another kind of knife.

Doug Ritter

On our website (www.kniferights.org) we have a link to a history of switchblade knives, which goes back centuries. And the history of the restrictions and bans on switchblades that occurred in the 1950s. Fake news is nothing new. There was a hack journalist back in the early 1950s who decided that this was a cause celebre that he could get politicians involved in. He wrote an article called “The Toy That Kills” and that's what started this. Then Hollywood jumped on the bandwagon.

Back in the day, there were folding knives, there were switch blades and there were fixed blades.

Today, there are all kinds of ways to open a knife one handed - just as quickly as a switchblade.

There is no functional difference, except one has a spring and a button, and the other has a flipper or a thumb stud or something like that.

So from a functional standpoint, there's no difference from the question of commonality.

During the hearings for the Federal switchblade a Senate subcommittee did a study: they were selling 1.2 million switch blades a year in the United States at that time, every year. That's common.

That's millions and millions of switchblades - at the time that they decided to ban them.

So there's just no question that these are common. They are not unusual, or especially dangerous, because they're no different than any other knife that opens with one hand.

Doug Ritter

Exactly. There was never any real problem. With gangs, this was an invention of Hollywood and Broadway. And in many respects, it has the same racist background that we saw in bans on Bowie knives and other big knives after the Civil War.

Most of the history of the knife bans in the United States is rooted in some manner of racism.

That's one of the reasons that, unlike firearms, Knife Rights gets support from the left side of the aisle.

A majority of our bills have passed with bipartisan support, often with the support of folks who hate the NRA; who hate firearms.

But, while we aren't firearms, we are a Second Amendment organization.

But for them, it's criminal justice reform. So we are able to get them on board. And we have had anti gun governors sign our bills.

It's the same fight, but it’s a different front. We like to say we're the second front in the defense of the Second Amendment.

Doug Ritter

We do that for the very practical reason that it works for us.

When we were suing New York City over their abuse of the state's gravity knife law… after they prosecuted over 70,000 people over the course of a decade for carrying a common one hand opening pocket knife. In most cases, 76% of those people were people of color, even in white majority neighborhoods. That's a pretty bad indictment of how these restrictions and bans are enforced.

And it's one of the reasons that we get support from the left side of the aisle - because it's their people who are most often being abused with the statutes who criminalize innocent behavior.

Doug Ritter

Who does that hurt the most? The economically disadvantaged, who probably need these weapons to protect themselves as much or more than anyone else. So we are making the same arguments.

We're just having more success with them in many respects. But we've done the easy states. We've done the difficult states. Now we have the intractable states.

We have sued California over there switchblade ban, we just sued the city of Philadelphia, where it is illegal to carry a knife any kind, period. No, if ands or buts about it, unless you're on a job using a knife, it's illegal to carry a knife. So how often is it enforced? I don’t know. But we are going to get rid of it through litigation. Because after Bruen, we have the right arguments to say this is unconstitutional. You can't stop people from carrying a knife for self defense.

Doug Ritter

We've been in federal court before. I mean, we've spent nine and a half years suing the city of New York. We had a bill passed by the legislature to solve the problem - twice - only to have it vetoed by Governor Cuomo.

And it was only when our case was up for conference at the Supreme Court in a week, having passed the legislature for the third time with only one nay vote, that he finally signed our bill. He signed because a win for us that the Supreme Court would have been a win for the Second Amendment, even though it wasn't a Second Amendment case. And he couldn't stand that.

But it takes perseverance. I mean, nine and a half years. Many of the bills that we have passed have been the result of years and years and years of work.

And in many states it's been get part of it done, then come back the next year, in the next session. It hasn't always been a question of okay, well, let's get rid of all the knife bad knife laws.

We were the first one to get a switchblade ban repealed. We were the first one to pass knife preemption law in states to get rid of all the local stuff.

It's been a building process. These lawsuits we are doing now are the culmination of 13 years of working our way towards this. And finally having a conservative Supreme Court hear a case and rule rationally about it.

Doug Ritter

So we are for knife owners, knife collectors, the NRA for knives, we are that for our community.

Before we got started, there was a manufacturer's organization which still exists.

The Wall Street Journal ran an article about “tactical knives” - a headline article in the B section in summer 2006 - that was like every really bad article you’ve ever read about evil assault, weapons assault, right? I mean, it was trying to demonize so called “tactical knives”. It was full of half-truths and made up stuff. It was just terrible.

That’s when I realized that there was no NRA, Second Amendment Foundation, there was nothing and nobody going out and proactively working to change things.

And we - I - formed Knife Rights to proactively go in and get rid of bad knife laws.

And when I started doing this, a lot of people - including you - told me I was nuts. They were not wrong.

But beginning in 2009, we had a big battle with U.S. Customs. They basically wanted to turn any one hand opening knife into a switchblade. They wanted to, effectively, change the definition of a switch. As the grassroots portion of a coalition, the industry, the grassroots Second Amendment community, were able to get that stopped. Looking back on it, it was an absolute miracle.

But having done that, we had legs and we decided, okay, now it's time to go after the state laws.

And we started out with New Hampshire and Arizona. New Hampshire, we did the first repeal of a switchblade ban in the country. In Arizona, we passed the first knife law preemption bill.

And we kept doing it. And eventually, we were able to say, I know you think we're crazy, but look what we're getting done.

You don't think we can do it? But we've proved that we can. There have been a lot of bumps along the way. But I don't think any organization out there the size of ours - which is basically three people myself, my wife, and our lobbyist, that has accomplished what we have accomplished - 44 bills in 28 states in 13 years.

Doug Ritter

Unfortunately, it costs money. We get things done, because we show up. Whether it's at the state house or in court, you have to show up you cannot do this remotely.

You can't call this in. You can't email this.

We get things done because we show up - sometimes year after year after year. If they pass legislation because they’re tired of seeing us around, I’m OK with that.. But you can’t get it done without showing up and that costs money.

We have a our major fundraiser every year: The Ultimate Steel Spectacular. This year, we have almost $200,000 worth of knives, firearms and other really cool stuff that you can win by making a donation, I think it’s great. And it’s proof of our being the second front in the defense of the Second Amendment that we have almost $40,000 worth of firearm prizes as part of it, because the firearms community understands we’re an important part of the Second Amendment fight and we are giving everyone who contributes to us a really good return on their investment.

We are getting things done. And we will continue to get things done - as long as we can raise the money. You know this doesn't come free. But I think your return on investment with us is one of the best that you can get.

About Doug Ritter

Douglas S. Ritter founded Knife Rights in 2006 in order to forge a Sharper Future for all Americans™.

Mr. Ritter is an award-winning journalist and authority in the areas of survival and survival equipment.

Mr. Ritter served as a contributing editor to The Aviation Consumer and Aviation Safety for over a decade and was also Safety and Survival Editor for Practical Sailor and Powerboat Reports. He served as the News Editor of AVweb for two years (1998-1999) and won the National Air Transportation Association’s 1999 “Aviation Journalism Award” for excellence in aviation journalism.

Doug was a Cornerstone founding member of the Professional Outdoor Media Association, as well as being a member of Boating Writers International. Doug won the 2000 Boating Writers International Annual Writing Contest in the category of Safety, Seamanship and Rescue for his five-part series of articles, “Life Rafts: The Good, Bad and The Ugly.” He is also a former officer and pilot in the Civil Air Patrol. He was also awarded a commendation from the U.S. Coast Guard's National Boating Safety Advisory Council in 2004 for his investigation and resultant articles on deficiencies in some distress alerting beacons.

For nearly 20 years he was a working full member of the S.A.E. Aerospace Council, Aircraft Division, S-9 Cabin Safety Provisions Committee, and the S-9A Subcommittee – Evacuation and Ditching Systems, Doug participated in the development of standards, procedures and recommended practices for related systems on transport category aircraft.

Doug wass also for nearly 20 years a member of RTCM (Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services) Subcommittee SC110 that develop standards for EPIRBs and PLBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons and Personal Locator Beacons) that form the basis for FCC and many international regulations that regulate the minimum performance requirements for these beacons. Doug ewas been an active participant in COSPAS-SARSAT Task Groups and Joint Committee meetings that have developed improved international standards for performance and testing of all 406 MHz emergency beacons, ELTs, EPIRBs and PLBs. Doug’s participation in these committees was a direct outgrowth from his emergency beacon testing that revealed serious performance deficiencies in some GPS-enabled emergency beacons and significant loopholes in performance and testings standards for 406 MHz beacons.

Doug was the only consumer advocate that participated in these standards setting committees.

Mr. Ritter established Equipped To Survive on the Web in 1994.

After evaluating survival gear for over two decades, Doug developed some very strong opinions about what works and what doesn't’t. In some cases he has given up hope that someone else will deliver a product that includes all the features he would prefer. As a result, he began collaborations to produce gear to his own exacting specifications. The Pocket Survival Pak was the first, followed by his first knife, the RSK Mk1. More information on his current RSK knife collaborations and aviation survival kits can be found at www.DougRitter.com.

• Knox Williams, American Suppressor Association (ASA)
• Tim Joseph, VP Marketing, Benelli USA
• Ken Campbell, CEO, Gunsite Academy
• Chris Dorsey
• Alan Gottlieb/SAF & CCRKBA
• Scent of Success -- Sam Burgess/Wildlife Research Center
• Bill Wilson: Wilson Combat
• Q&A With Jonathan Shults, Co-Founder/CEO SilencerCo.
• Joe Bartozzi: President/CEO National Shooting Sports Foundation
• Jared Smith: Taking Over AMMO, Inc.
• Robert Nioa: Coming to America