Exclusive: Andy Biggs, Mike Lee reintroduce legislation protecting knife owners

Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah reintroduced the Knife Owners Protection Act, which protects knife owners traveling from one state to another against vague and restrictive state and local laws.

The legislation details that so long as possession of the knife is legal in the states an individual travels to and from, and so long as the knife is secured based on the KOPA requirements, a knife owner can't be arrested for simply traveling across state lines.

"The government must not discourage interstate travel and commerce by subjecting law-abiding knife owners to the fear of prosecution under the myriad patchwork of state and local knife laws," Biggs said in a statement obtained exclusively by Blaze News.

'Enforcement is not uniform even with jurisdictions and is too often subject to the vagaries of political expediency.'

"Americans are guaranteed the right to protect themselves, their families, and their businesses by the Second Amendment, and we must ensure that those rights are protected," Biggs continued. "I'm thankful for Senator Lee's leadership on the issue in the Senate and for the support of my colleagues as we work to move this bill through Congress."

The bill was originally drafted in 2010 by an organization known as Knife Rights and was officially introduced in 2013, making KOPA the first proactive federal legislation protecting knife owners in our nation's history.

Congress enacted a similar law in 1986 known as the Firearm Owner Protection Act, which protected law-abiding gun owners from the patchwork of local and state laws. Although FOPA was already passed, knife owners have not yet experienced the same protections.

"Those who travel across the country with knives for work, recreation and self-defense are presently subject to arrest and prosecution under a confusing patchwork of inconsistent state and local laws," Doug Ritter, chairman of Knife Rights, said in the statement.

"What is perfectly legal in one place may be a serious crime in another, resulting in forfeiture of the knife and carrying significant penalties including jail time," Ritter continued. "Enforcement is not uniform even with jurisdictions and is too often subject to the vagaries of political expediency."

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