Sunday's edition of Tom Gresham's nationally syndicated Gun Talk Radio Show will feature Les de Asis, President of Benchmade Knife Company, and Doug Ritter, Editor of Equipped To Survive and Chairman of the Equipped To Survive Foundation. The subject will be the poorly researched, highly biased and inflammatory anti-knife Wall Street Journal article that ran this past Tuesday, "How New, Deadly Pocketknives Became a $1 Billion Business."

Les will be starting at 2:00 PM Eastern, 11:00 AM Pacific. Doug will follow at 2:30 PM Eastern, 11:30 AM Pacific.

Gun Talk is carried live (or delayed broadcast in a few cases) by over 100 radio stations nationwide, check your local listings. It can also be found on channel 144 on SIRIUS Satellite Radio and on a three hour delay on channel 166 on XM Satellite Radio. You can also listen via streaming audio on the Web from a number of sources including www.KBNP.com and www.KSBN.net

Here's a link to the article that doesn't require a subscription to the WSJ site:

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/06206/708441-28.stm

Wow. The comparatively level-headed staff at the WSJ must've been drinking their bathwater when they let that tripe go to press. If I had a subscription I'd be cancelling it. What rot.

The vast majority of the media doesn't care what they put out, as long as people read about it and talk about it. The more traffic, good or bad, the more ads they sell, the more money they make, and that's all they care about.

Doug, you did a great job on Gun Talk. I have signed up on the website, and emailed my friends and family.

For those you who could not listen to the program check out the United States Knife & Tool Association at www.uskta.org .

On Sunday, July 30, 2006, Doug Ritter and Les de Asis, President of Benchmade Knife Company, were guests on Tom Gresham's nationally syndicated Gun Talk Radio Show, discussing the inflammatory anti-knife Wall Street Journal article, "How New, Deadly Pocketknives Became a $1 Billion Business." You can listen to the archives of that show:

(Note that these are being hosted temporarily on my site as www.GunTalk.com has temporarily run out of bandwidth)

Hour One - Guests Les de Asis - Benchmad...ool Association

Hour Two - Guest Doug Ritter - United States Knife and Tool Association

Hour Three - Bob Morrison - Taurus Firea...ut the topic.)

Excellent, listening now. Thanks for the links.

Doug,

Thank you for the Gun Talk files! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Just wait next the powers that be will want a ban on Q-tips, someone could pop an ear drum.

Those who would trade their freedom for a little security deserve neither.

More to the point, with the right accompanying dishes, they probably taste decent. If not, that is what marinade is for.

What can I say, I like mutton.

I just read that through. My first reaction was anger. Which is what the author intended (I think). My second reaction was can he be sued for liable? Probably not. I suspect that everything in that artical was accurate but quoted out of context. My third reaction was: Not another selfrightious moron who thinks that you should never use violence. Reaction number four was: Has anyone given that Marine a medal? Best way to deal with this gentleman is to make him look like an idiot. Be cool Gentlemen.

Can't sue a newspaper over an editorial. That's gone to the supreme court a few times. Newspaper editors can say anything they want so long as they don't swear. Last time I looked, they could even defame someone's character, so long as they printed a half column inch worth of retraction or the senior editor said "it was his opinion, not the official position of the paper".

It's just like you can't sue a congress critter for what he says on the chamber floor, even if it is out and out lies.

Here's what gets me:

"...ex-Marine Thomas Autry used a two-inch blade in May to kill one mugger and wound another when he was confronted by five assailants armed with a shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol."

Which is followed immediately by:

"Clearly we are seeing wounds you would expect from a bigger blade from what victims say was a small knife,"

The author doesn't quite say it, but the assosciation he wants you to make is that the muggers with the .38 and the shotgun were victims of this fine Marine and his little pocket knife.

I suspect that he could have taken both of them on even without the knife. I want this guy watching my back!

Check out: http://www.uskta.org/ (for those who may not be able to listen to the broadcast).

BUT of COURSE they are VICTIM'S. How DARE he fight back! Who does HE THINK HE IS??? I DEMAND he be IMMEDIATELY arrested!


If you think I'm be sarcastic, you would be quite right. It's also the attitude prevalent this side of the pond. We have a very major problem over here. Your next.

not during my lifetime.

When did you say your funeral was?

If these idiots ain't stomped on hard and fast, self defence will be a criminal offence. As it is (de facto) in the UK.

You can this side of the pond. There are two defence's to an action for liable. One is "fair comment" and the second is that you are telling the truth. Newspapers tend to rely upon the first defence. As for the Congress Critter, it's normal for parliments to have quite extensive privilege with regards to what their members can say. How far the CC can go, depends entirely on the Speaker.

"If these idiots ain't stomped on hard and fast, self defence will be a criminal offence. As it is (de facto) in the UK."

Fortunately some in the US woke up in time to begin fighting back. I'm speaking of organizations like the NRA, GOA, and JPFO. We could still lose, but at least we have a fighting chance.