...and best wishes for a healthy, prosperous and very sharp 2008!

It’s been a while since our last newsletter, for which I must apologize. My wife’s stay in the hospital, including three days in ICU, shortly after Blade Show West put everything behind and I am just now starting to catch up. So, having got that out of the way, here’s where things stand with Knife Rights.

A lot has happened in the past few months and more exciting things are in store for the New Year

We attended Blade Show West in Portland, Oregon, and enjoyed meeting many of you who attended. It was a good show for us, in that we signed up a good number of members, handed out a lot of Knife Rights buttons and explained to many knife owners that, yes indeed, they are out to take away our knives. Thanks very much to Chuck Gollnick and Pete Conway who helped man the booth.

By Evan F. Nappen, Attorney at Law

A trial is still an ordeal by battle. For the broadsword there is the weight of evidence; for the battle-ax, the force of logic; for the sharp spear, the blazing gleam of truth; for the rapier, the quick and flashing knife of wit.
           --Lloyd Paul Stryker

You have NO need to read this article because it could never happen to you. Right? This article must have been written for knife-wielding thugs or street-gang members. Right? Why would law enforcement authorities ever come after you? Right?

WRONG! Merely because you possess or carry a knife, anti-knife law enforcers may try to justify their existence by turning you into an accused “law abiding” criminal. Even though you are a careful, honest knife owner, with no intent to do anything wrong and would never knowingly break the law, this can easily happen to you. I have plenty of criminal case files chock full of examples of innocent, unsuspecting, law abiding folks having to fight their way though the justice system to “prove their innocence.”

We're back from Blade Show in Atlanta and pretty excited by the response we received. This was our first effort at having a Knife Rights booth at a show and we learned a lot.

Special thanks to those Knife Rights members who came by and spelled us in the booth from time to time, and especially to Denis Bechen (left in photo) who committed his entire weekend to assisting us with set-up and take-down and manned the booth for most of the show. Volunteer dedication like this is the foundation upon which we will build a strong and effective organization.

We handed out about 2500 Knife Rights buttons and by Saturday you couldn't look in any direction in the main hall without seeing a dozen buttons being worn by attendees and knifemakers.

Two significant announcements came out of our participation at Blade Show. Brigade Quartermasters of Kennesaw, Georgia, has joined as a Cornerstone Charter Member and beyond that, made a significant additional contribution of funds to help us build Knife Rights. Brigade's President, Mitchell WerBell IV, said, "our Second Amendment rights mean more than just owning and possessing firearms...the right to own edged weapons was also our Founding Fathers’ intent, and that right is under assault in every state...Much like the NRA, we need a strong group that is our legislative advocate, organizer and protector of our rights. Brigade is honored to join Knife Rights because they have it RIGHT." (read more in the full newsletter)

We are very pleased to welcome to Knife Rights a company of Brigade's reputation for "delivering the Goods to the Good Guys." We will be working with Brigade to publicize Knife Rights to their customers, almost all of whom are knife owners.

I participated in a Blade sponsored panel discussion, "How To Protect Your Knife Rights" that included David Kowalski, Communications Coordinator of AKTI, and renowned 2nd Amendment attorney Evan Nappen (www.evannappen.com). Of more significance is that Evan Nappen not only joined Knife Rights, but has volunteered to help us build our Knife Laws portion of the Knife Rights web site. I view this as one of the most important services we'll be able to offer our members and Evan's assistance will make it happen quicker and the results will be far more useful with his commentary and explanations that will cut through the legalese.

Recently the Anti's have taken aim at our knives after being shut down in their efforts to further restrict firearms. We are a tempting target because there's no NRA to defend our rights. A recent highly biased and inaccurate Wall Street Journal article was an opening salvo in this attack, attempting to demonize simple pocket knives just like they did with "assault weapons." One only has to look to Europe where many of the knives we take for granted are banned or restricted. That's their aim here in the U.S. Knife Rights will lead the fight for your rights; an organization by knife owners, for knife owners. Read more about why the time is ripe for Knife Rights.

 "This is a commendable effort to protect the freedoms we both hold dear. I am pleased to support your efforts by joining Knife Rights as a Cornerstone Charter Member."

                     -- Sandy Froman