Knife Rights' Knife Owners' Protection Act, S. 1315 (KOPA), cleared a critical hurdle yesterday when it was voted out of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. Passage by the Commerce Committee sets the measure up for consideration by the full Senate. KOPA would protect travelers from a patchwork of conflicting state knife laws. Knife Rights urges you to CALL and EMAIL your senator TODAY! (see below)

The result of five years of effort, Knife Rights conceived, drafted and developed the Knife Owners' Protection Act as the first proactive pro-knife federal legislation introduced in the nation's history.

Knife Rights Chairman Doug Ritter noted, "This legislation will solve a real and growing problem that faces every knife owner traveling throughout America--the threat of arrest and prosecution under misguided local laws merely for possessing knives during lawful travel." KOPA will protect law-abiding knife owners traveling throughout the U.S. from a patchwork of restrictive state and local laws. As long as possession of the particular knife is legal where the journey starts and ends, and provided the knife is secured in accordance with KOPA, a knife owner would no longer be threatened with arrest simply for traveling from one place to another.

"KOPA's only aim is to provide safe harbor to someone traveling with knives where they can legally be possessed at the points of origin and ultimate destination," Ritter emphasized, "the bill requires they be locked up during travel in states where they would be illegal. It eliminates the constant jeopardy of criminal prosecution for simply passing through an area. It offers no protection to anyone engaged in criminal activity."

Knife Rights continues to lead the way with aggressive proactive legislative action to defend and protect knife owners' rights. KOPA is just another example of our groundbreaking efforts to forge a Sharper Future for all Americans with 15 pro-knife bills passed in 13 states in the past 5 years.

The Senate version of KOPA is sponsored by Senator Mike Enzi (R-UT) with co-sponsors Senators. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mike Lee (R-UT), Joe Manchin (D-WV), John Thune (R-SD) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM).

KOPA was originally introduced in Congress in the House in November of 2013 by Representative Matt Salmon (R-AZ) and was re-introduced earlier this year as H. 419. Whichever house of Congress passes the bill first, it will move to the other house. With this vote by the Senate committee, the Senate version now has a leg up on the House version.

Knife Rights urges all freedom-loving Americans to TAKE ACTION TODAY! PLEASE CALL OR EMAIL YOUR SENATOR TODAY and urge them to VOTE YES on S.1315. You can find your Senator at: http://www.senate.gov/general/contac...nators_cfm.cfm

Or, you can use the Open Congress website at: https://www.opencongress.org/bill/s1315-114/

Keep your call and email simple and to the point:

I support S.1315, the Knife Owners' Protection Act. I urge you to VOTE YES on this commonsense legislation that will protect my rights and the rights of all knife owners to travel throughout the U.S. without fear of prosecution under the myriad of state and local knife laws.

A FAQ on KOPA with additional details and background can be found at: http://bit.ly/1arZIa0