Remember that old uncle, the one who smelled vaguely of Fritos and always wore Crocs to family parties, even in the snow? Remember how he used to start a story "Back in my day..."? The one you always rolled your eyes at?
You might be him someday, regaling the generations below you of how it was way back in '21.
PENTAGON OTF coming this fall
"Yeah, kids," you'll say wistfully, "those were the good ol' days of switchblades."
Thing is, you dont' have to smell like snack food and have questionable tastes in footwear, to be right. The cold, hard truth is there's no time like now in America to own an automatic opening knife.
From the day in 1958 when the Federal Switchblade Act went into effect, owning an automatic knife always seemed a little on the fringe. Even though the law is not a federal restriction on ownership, the hysteria that helped create Public Law 85-623 seemed to marginalize switchblade owners.
THINGS HAVE CHANGED
According to Doug Ritter of Knife Rights, a non-profit dedicated to representing knife owners in public policy debates and to oppose efforts to restrict knife ownership, there's never been a time when switchblade ownership has been more accepted.
"We've rolled back 16 bans on possession and carry of auto knives since 2010," said Ritter. "This really has been the era of getting rid of these irrational anachronisms that were switchblade laws."
Currently, 44 states allow some sort of possession of automatic knives. Of note, however, there are six states where civilian possession of a switchblade is illegal: Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Mexico, Virginia and well, Washington (where SOG Is headquartered).
Despite that, SOG has been part of the rising tide. Last year, mindful of state laws, SOG opened up its website to allow the sale of automatic knives. Later this year, SOG will introduce two new automatics – SOG TAC AU and Pentagon OTF, the first out-the-front knife in SOG's history.
"As automatic knife ownership has become accepted and celebrated we've pushed the innovation of these knives forward," said Jonathan Wegner, VP of Brand for SOG. "The consumer demand for switchblades is certainly a motivating factor for our design and engineering team."
SOG-TAC AU family coming this fall
MORE TO COME
Additional demand for automatic knives is coming. Across the U.S., said Ritter, bills under consideration by state legislators in states as diverse as Texas, Vermont, North Dakota, Illinois and Michigan could make it even easier to own switchblades.
"We could use the help in voters in all these states to keep pressure on lawmakers to do the right thing and reverse some of these laws," said Ritter. "If people want to be informed about what's happening in their region, they can sign up for our free newsletter on our website and we'll help guide them through communicating with their political leaders on this issue."
There's more good news from Ritter. Across the country, he doesn't see much chance of legislation call for additional bans getting much support.
"There are a few bills running in some states that I think have much of a chance of passing," Ritter said. "In the last 10 years there have been 10 bills seeking to add additional restrictions on edged tools. We've managed to kill eight of them."
Switchblade laws in the United States were passed under misguided social motivations, not because of some greater public safety concern. To celebrate the erosion of these ill-formed laws, and to have something to tell your nieces and nephews about, you might as well go ahead and get a new knife.
For more information about Knife Rights, log on to kniferights.org
