Hey, AG Bondi! What About Knife Owners’ 2A Rights?

In Knife Rights’ Second Amendment lawsuit against the Federal Switchblade Act we hoped that the Trump administration, through Attorney General Pam Bondi, would come through on the President’s executive order “Protecting Second Amendment Rights” and AG Bondi’s recent statement that, “the prior administration placed an undue burden on…law-abiding citizens exercising their 2nd Amendment rights. The Department of Justice’s new 2nd Amendment Task Force will combine department-wide policy and litigation resources to advance President Trump’s pro-gun agenda and protect gun owners from overreach.”

Knife Rights Chairman Doug Ritter asked, “Did someone miss the memo that the Second Amendment says ‘arms,’ not ‘guns?’” Unfortunately, after Knife Rights agreed to two 30-day extensions to allow the AG and DOJ attorneys to consider the effect the change in administration would have on their final reply brief in this 2A case, the government continued to push forward with their defense of the unconstitutional Federal Switchblade Act, attempting to dismiss the case.

In the AG’s disappointing reply brief the Government continues to argue that Plaintiffs do not have standing to even challenge the Federal Switchblade Act. It doesn’t matter that the FSA prohibits plaintiffs and every other individual in the United States from acquiring common arms through interstate commerce. It doesn’t matter that the government continues to enforce these restrictions on the knife industry through the threat of prosecution. It doesn’t matter that Knife Rights has shown that the FSA has been actively enforced against Knife Rights members. According to the government, no one may challenge this unconstitutional law, even though it is undisputed the government could choose at any time to prosecute and convict any individual or company not adhering to the FSA’s prohibitions at any time.

For example, the Feds claim, “Plaintiffs have not established that the provision prevents them from acquiring switchblades via intrastate distribution.” Apparently, in the eyes of the Federal government, prohibiting all commerce across state lines of a common arm does not “infringe” on the Second Amendment. In modern times, such a claim is absurd.

Ritter said, “There is no question that Plaintiffs have standing. There is no question that the FSA is unconstitutional in every way. We’ll have to see how the District Court rules on the issue. Depending on the outcome, the DOJ could still facilitate a victory for the Second Amendment of which President Trump said, ‘because it is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans, the right to keep and bear arms must not be infringed,’ but now we’ll just have to wait and see. So far, actions have not delivered on the President’s words.”

About Knife Rights

Knife Rights (www.KnifeRights.org) is America’s grassroots knife owners’ organization. Knife Rights efforts have resulted in 52 bills enacted repealing knife bans and protecting knife owners in 32 states and over 200 cities and towns since 2010.