Wow, Doug have you been surveilled yet by the New York DA undercover cops? You must be pretty high at the top their list with your no nonsense common sense approach to the subject. If the New York DA has been able to screw 2 million bucks from some of the big players in sporting and home retail industry and to characterise them as a so called 'illegal Knives Ring Bust' perhaps its time to keep the head down rather than stick it above the parapet.

I really cannot see how they could be using deferred prosecutions against knife traders when their trading activities are completely legal unless they are using some wide catch all anti-terrorist legislation or something as outrageous from a legal point of view. The offense of carrying an illegal weapon must be based on circumstances of the illegal carry of the weapon itself by the offender. The illegal weapon is characterised by the offense, rather than where it was originally legally purchased.

These well funded and legally represented companies certainly have seemed to have caved in under pressure from the New York DA. There appears to more to the story than just the definition of what constitutes a gravity knife. Are the deferred prosecution agreements publically available documents? It would be interesting to know exactly what laws the New York DA are using to get monies from their targets as the subjective definition of what constitutes a gravity knife does not appear to be the issue.