Knife Rights' Knife Owners' Protection Act, H.R.3478 (KOPA), was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives today by sponsor Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ).
“KOPA will protect law-abiding knife owners travelling throughout the U.S. from the vagaries of restrictive state and local laws,” says Knife Rights Chairman Doug Ritter.
“As long as possession of the particular knife is legal in the state where the journey starts and ends, and provided the knife is secured in accordance with KOPA, a knife owner would no longer be threatened with arrest simply for traveling from one place to another,” says Ritter. “KOPA is the first proactive pro-knife federal legislation introduced in the nation's history”.
Sponsor Rep. Matt Salmon (AZ-05) said, “This legislation is long overdue. The Knife Owners' Protection Act is a responsible and reasonable means of ensuring that knife owners throughout America can travel with assurance that their rights will be protected with equal respect for states with overly restrictive knife laws.”
The current situation with knives is similar to the circumstances with guns that existed prior to the passage of the Firearms Owner Protection Act (FOPA -18 USC 926A) in 1986, when Congress acted to protect law-abiding gun owners from a similar inconsistent patchwork of laws by insulating their travels if firearms possession was lawful at both the origination and destination points of travel.
