Georgia passes ‘most important knife bill of the year’

In what Knife Rights is describing as “the single most important bill for knife owners and the knife industry to pass this year,” SB432 was signed into law by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, taking effect July 1.

According to Knife Rights, the new knife preemption law effectively repeals a host of draconian knife ordinances that vary from county to county. What makes this so important is that it gets rid of knife restrictions on knife ownership, sales and manufacturing in places like Atlanta, which hosts the annual BLADE Show.

Here’s part of why it’s so important:

These local ordinances banned the possession of all sorts of knives readily available and often carried at the BLADE Show including a prohibition against carry of any automatic or any knife with a blade longer than three-inches “readily available for use.” An attendee or exhibitor could easily have run afoul of these ordinances and faced fines and jail time. The potential existed to create terrible publicity that could have jeopardized the knife world’s most important annual show! With the signing of Knife Rights drafted Knife Law Preemption bill, those threats are now eliminated.

While many knife organizations view this as a step in the right direction, it’s important to note that the law doesn’t go into effect until July 1. This means BLADE Show attendees are still susceptible to these strict laws during the show in June.

Knife Rights Director of Legislative Affairs, Todd Rathner, poured his heart and soul into passing the bill. According to Knife Rights, Rathner worked on getting this bill passed well before the start of the legislative session and spent a week in Atlanta helping gather support to push the bill through.

For more information on how to join Knife Rights, visit their site.