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Supreme Court Second Amendment Decision a Win for Knife Owners

Knife Rights is celebrating Thursday's opinion by the Supreme Court of the United States affirming that the right to bear arms, which includes knives, exists outside the home. Moreover, that the states cannot unreasonably restrict this right to the point of effectively denying it to the majority of law-abiding persons.

Knife Rights Chairman Doug Ritter said, "This is a huge win for the Second Amendment community and knife owners. The two pillars upon which Knife Rights stands are "Essential Tools - Essential Rights." We cannot fully retain the former without the latter. This decision by the Supreme Court significantly bolsters the latter and knife owner rights."

Knife Rights Foundation signed on to an Amicus Curiae (Friend of the Court) brief with FPC American Victory Fund and a number of state Second Amendment advocacy groups supporting the plaintiff in this case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association.

While the case obviously involved firearms, the implications of the Court's decision will reverberate throughout the Second Amendment community, including for those who carry knives in public for self-defense. This is why Knife Rights Foundation was an amicus in this case.

While the majority of knife carriers don't carry a knife primarily for self-defense, some do, and sometimes that edged tool ends up being used for self-defense in extremis. (Read the law review article "Knives and the Second Amendment.")

Knife Rights Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that serves its members and the public, focused on protecting the rights of knife owners to keep and carry knives and edged arms, including for self-defense. The purposes of the Knife Rights Foundation include the promotion of education regarding state and federal knife laws (including publication of Knife Rights' LegalBlade App) and the defense and protection of the civil rights of knife owners nationwide.

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by dead_left_knife_guy on June 24, 2022 at 19:39

As I understand it, N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. Bruen finds that a person shall not be required to prove a special self-defense need in order to be allowed to carry a firearm for self-defense. While this applies beyond the State of New York, I don't know how many states this would apply to. Maybe there's more application to city ordinances, especially home-rule jurisdictions?

Of all the recent knife law repeals & preemptions (of which Knife Rights should rightly be proud), have any been repealed or enacted with a legal basis in the Second Amendment? This is a sincere question, as I haven't read all of the enactments & repeals. But I ask because knives have not really been treated as "arms" for purposes of the 2A throughout our country's history, and have been regulated in all manner of ways.

The necessity of state preemption laws to protect the rights of knife owners/carriers/users, generally speaking, even implies that knives aren't protected under the Second Amendment, as states can only give more rights than provided under the U.S. Constitution, and cannot curtail rights provided at the national level. If I understand the ultimate thrust of your argument (no pun intended), you're ultimately saying that the 2A should protect knives & none of these preemption laws and repeals should even be necessary -- but pragmatically, they're the best we can do in the shortest amount of time, correct?

Along those lines, again, thanks for all the work you & Knife Rights do.

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KnifeMakerPermalink Reply by Doug Ritter on June 24, 2022 at 20:09

Thanks. There is no doubt that most 2A related issues revolve around firearms. That is becuase that's where the most obvious fight is. I suggest you review the law review article "Knives and the Second Amendment".

I think you may be a bit confused about preemption. If preemption wasn't related to 2A issues, then why do 42 states have firearm preemption laws? ;=) It was, and remains, a major issue in the 2A advocacy community A number of our preemption wins simply added "and knives" to existing firearm preemption statutes.

We are unique among 2A advocacy organizations in that we gain bipartisan support for many of our bills; each side of the aisle for their own reasons. Our representing a Second Amendment issue has been critical to our legislative success. But, the fact is that we often have to make the point initially with legislators and others the the Second Amendment doesn't say "firearms." It says "arms."

Hope this helps.

dead_left_knife_guy said:

As I understand it, N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. Bruen finds that a person shall not be required to prove a special self-defense need in order to be allowed to carry a firearm for self-defense. While this applies beyond the State of New York, I don't know how many states this would apply to. Maybe there's more application to city ordinances, especially home-rule jurisdictions?

Of all the recent knife law repeals & preemptions (of which Knife Rights should rightly be proud), have any been repealed or enacted with a legal basis in the Second Amendment? This is a sincere question, as I haven't read all of the enactments & repeals. But I ask because knives have not really been treated as "arms" for purposes of the 2A throughout our country's history, and have been regulated in all manner of ways.

The necessity of state preemption laws to protect the rights of knife owners/carriers/users, generally speaking, even implies that knives aren't protected under the Second Amendment, as states can only give more rights than provided under the U.S. Constitution, and cannot curtail rights provided at the national level. If I understand the ultimate thrust of your argument (no pun intended), you're ultimately saying that the 2A should protect knives & none of these preemption laws and repeals should even be necessary -- but pragmatically, they're the best we can do in the shortest amount of time, correct?

Along those lines, again, thanks for all the work you & Knife Rights do.

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by dead_left_knife_guy on June 25, 2022 at 0:20

Mr. Ritter,

Thank you for the link. I was already planning on reading that article, but I'll give it higher priority, at your suggestion. I've given it a scan, and it looks like it has a lot of interesting information, and it's making an interesting assertion.

To be clear, my question specifically inquired about the repeals and preemeptions that had their legal basis in the Second Amendment; in other words, in order to be consistent with federal law (specifically, the Second Amendment), or if it was merely the state declaring supremacy over city ordinances, because it can.

And not to belabor the point, but I'm really not confused about preemption. Cities and counties may be subject to state preemption, while states may be subject to federal preemption. Which is why 2A is the law of the land, and no state can go against that; and no state can declare an official religion, because of 1A, for example. And a state law generally supercedes a city ordinance when there's any conflict between the two. Did I write something that caused you to think I was confused about preemption?