Good job Doug, it won't help us over here in Australia, but it is important to defend the rights of knife owners in America.
The laws over here are ridiculous in regard to knives. Hey they can't keep knives out of prisons, what hope have they got in the real world! Over here you can have a knife on you if you have a "Lawful Reason" for carrying, and it is up to the discretion of our police to decide if it is lawful or not. Essentially you have to show that your job requires the use of it, and that you are working.
Many of the stabbings over here are done with kitchen knives and are perpetrated by people with a history of mental problems. The problem is that we have loonys on the street which shouldn't be there and knives are being blamed instead of the government's poor mental health policies.
Now people are using iron bars as well, the problems have nothing to do with the availability of weapons, but with the state of our physically and mentally sick kids who have grown up in a poisonous culture and experimented with drugs.
When living in America, in Nashville, I wore a sheath knife on my belt for years, all day, every day. I wouldn't even dream of doing that over here in Melbourne. Having a 750 AU dollar knife confiscated and facing a 600 dollar fine (possibly) just doesn't seem too attractive. My EDC is now a Gerber Multitool which does not draw as much attention.
I hope that you will be able to help fend off this attack from the well meaning but logically challenged members of society; many of whom have never had to use a knife for anything other than cutting up a steak.
Being a knifemaker, I acknowledge that I may be a little biased but knives don't kill people, people do! In prisons inmates can be killed with no more than a roll of newspaper!
Buffalo River Forge - my knife page