It's hard for me to imagine that you could be so much more cynical than me, but I have to admit you beat me by a mile on this. <wg>

1. USKTA IS NOT the industry, this is BY owners and FOR owners. This is me doing this, not the industry. The industry is still having difficulty wrapping their brains around the concept that AKTI cannot and does not serve the individual very well, which is why they have so few individual members, and that as a result we're forming our own advocacy group.

2. Calling the knife industry more solvent than the gun industry is so far off that it would be funny, if it wasn't so sad. I have no idea where the reporter got his numbers from, but I am very skeptical of the $1B figure and Emerson's egotistical boasting not withstanding, I am quite skeptical of that number as well. The knife industry is small potatoes compared to firearms. The WSJ figure is not a Last year we lost Shrade, now just a name for an imported line not selling near even what the original was, and this year we're losing Camillus, two of the oldest names in the business and both major manufacturers for others as well. . At least a few other major players are having financial issues to one degree or another. Some are pulling lout, some are questionable. The industry is solvent, but not robust.

3. The knife industry needs this fight like they need a hole in the head. But, because they are relatively small and because they are not well organized or well financed, they've been identified as an easy target.