If you’re a manufacturer or importer in the knife industry, AKTI saved your business in Arkansas in February 2007.
Columbia, SC (January 2008) – AKTI introduced and passed a law repealing Arkansas’ weapons statute that made carrying a knife with a 3.5-inch or longer blade a weapons offense. With a population of 2,673,400, AKTI saved approximately one million knife-owning Arkansas residents and visitors from possible arrest and prosecution.
Now AKTI is taking on the South Carolina weapons statute that is even more restrictive than Arkansas.
AKTI has hired a lobbyist and is proposing the following changes …
SECTION 16 23 405. Definition of “weapon”; confiscation and disposition of weapons used in commission or in furtherance of crime.
(1) Except for the provisions relating to rifles and shotguns in Section 16 23 460, as used in this chapter, ‘weapon’ means firearm (rifle, shotgun, pistol, or similar device that propels a projectile through the energy of an explosive), a knife with a blade over two inches long (to delete), a blackjack, a metal pipe or pole, or any other type of device or object which may be used to inflict bodily injury or death.
SECTION 16 23 460. Carrying concealed weapons; forfeiture of weapons.
Any person carrying a deadly weapon usually used for the infliction of personal injury concealed about his person is guilty of a misdemeanor, must forfeit to the county, or, if convicted in a municipal court, to the municipality the concealed weapon, and must be fined not less than two hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned not less than thirty days nor more than ninety days. Nothing herein contained may be construed to apply to (1) persons carrying concealed weapons upon their own premises or pursuant to and in compliance with Article 4 of Chapter 31 of Title 23, or (2) peace officers in the actual discharge of their duties. The provisions of this section do not apply to rifles, shotguns, dirks, slingshots, metal knuckles, knives [added] or razors unless they are used with the intent to commit a crime or in furtherance of a crime.
Note: If AKTI is successful in South Carolina (pop. 4,321,249), we will be saving some two million potential in-state knife owners and annual recreational visitors who might be carrying knives.