The Tennessee Senate, on a vote of 27-4, concurred on the House amended Knife Rights Knife Law Preemption bill, sending it to Governor Haslam. Please call AND email Governor Bill Haslam and ask him to sign SB1015/HB0581: 615-741-2001 – bill.haslam@tn.gov Knife Rights would like to thank the bill sponsors, Sen. Mike Bell and Rep. Vance Dennis, for their efforts to get this bill passed .
SB1015/HB0581 originally included language to repeal the Tennessee ban on switchblade knives and knives over 4-inches long, as well as enact Knife Law Preemption. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly, but was amended in the House after a last minute hyperbolic misinformation campaign in opposition to those repeal portions of the bill by the Tennessee Sheriff’s Association.
Testimony by their executive director included such outlandish remarks about switchblades as being intimidating because, “it even sounds like a shotgun rack, if you want to get right down to it.”
What that has to do with whether a knife should be legal or not, we are not at all sure. Moreover, an automatic sounds no different than most any other one-hand opening knife when opened aggressively. Perhaps the Sheriffs would like to outlaw Harleys because they sound more intimidating that a Vespa scooter?
As sometimes occurs in the legislative process, we were faced with the choice of moving what is arguably the most important part of the bill, preemption, and coming back next year on the rest, or seeing the bill die altogether. Knife Rights is pleased to “take the win” on Knife Law Preemption, our state legislative priority.
Tennessee is the seventh state to pass Knife Law Preemption since Knife Rights passed the first-in-the-nation Knife Law Preemption bill in Arizona in 2010, and the third state this year, following Kansas and Alaska.
Sponsors Bell and Dennis have assured us that they will be back next session with a bill to repeal the ban on switchblades and knives over 4-inches long and with time to counter the Tennessee Sherriff’s Association’s irrational misinformation, and your help, we are confident we will get it done.
When you call and email, keep it polite, short and to the point. Simply ask the Governor to please sign SB1015/HB0581 as soon as possible.