The US Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) on May 21 proposed revoking earlier rulings that “assisted-opening” knives are not switchblades and instituting a new definition that could be used to eliminate immediately 8 of 10 legal pocketknives in the nation, according to activists who are gearing up to fight the plan.

Several things are striking about the proposal. It was announced only in a Customs and Border Protection newsletter without general notice or publicity so that the public and the cutlery industry had little or no advance warning. People who have learned about it have gotten their news mostly from Internet sources, including WorldNetDaily.com (WND), KnifeRights.org, and KeepAndBear-Arms.com. The general print and electronic media have mostly ignored it. Even Gun Week, the gunowner and outdoor publication with the shortest deadlines in the country, first got word of the CBP proposal less than a week before this issue went to press on June 15.

The other unusual aspect for a bureaucratic agency proposing new rulemaking was that the CBP allowed only the minimum time (30 days) for public comment—until June 21 and required the comment to be only via US mail or overnight carriers like FedEx or UPS. And, since June 21 falls on a Sunday, that means the actual deadline for comment is Friday, June 19. The agency also rejected a requested extension.

No provision was made for emailed comment from the public which has been the standard with most government agencies in the past. All of which suggests that the agency was intentionally trying to railroad this new regulation through with minimum public input or opposition.

While the CBP has the authority to impose the new ruling, Congress may still take an interest in the issue, and many of the groups opposing the new rule are urging interested parties to communicate their concerns directly to their representatives.

The proposed new rule defining illegal switch-blade knives would not only outlaw “assisted-opening” knives, but could also include one-handed assisted-opening knives and could be easily interpreted to cover most other pocket knives, even simple old-fashioned slip-joints, since with expert and practiced handling—especially by the disabled who might have to open a knife that way or not at all—most common folding knives and even multi-tools can be opened one-handed by knowledgeable owners.

Doug Ritter of KnifeRights.org, told Gun Week’s Dave Workman that the implications of the decision would be far-reaching, since many state and federal agencies depend on the CBP’s definitions to determine what is legal in the United States.

For a long time, those switchblades that have long stiletto blades that are spring-ejected powerfully from the side or end of the handle have been illegal in the United States, but now a review by the agency of its own approval in 2008 of a particular type of knife for import is raising serious alarms.

Ritter said the effect of the proposed change would be that the new design in knives, many of which contain a tiny spring to help the user pull open the blade and lock it into position, would be classified alongside those true weapons where the user just presses a button on the handle and the blade is ejected.

“They are saying that any knife that you can open quickly or any knife that you can open with one hand is therefore a switchblade,” Ritter said.

On his organization’s website there are suggested letters for consumers to use in contact the Customs agency as well as their members of Congress.

Ritter suggested that up to 80% of the pocketknives sold in America today either are one-handed opening knives or so-called assisted-opening knives—and they all suddenly would be classified as illegal switchblades.

That could mean headaches for the knife industry, Ritter said. “Customs,” continued Ritter, “is the only place where the switchblade is interpreted in various rulings. Whenever a federal, state, or local jurisdiction is looking at what a switchblade is, whenever there’s a court case or whatever … they will look to the feds.”

The agency change came in a case involving a knife called the “VanHoy Assist,” whose importers were represented in a request for affirmation of its legality by a San Francisco law firm.

The knives first were approved by the agency in 2008. But only a few weeks ago, the agency’s Intellectual Property Rights and Restricted Merchandise Branch did a review and reversed itself.

Ritter said the reason for the change isn’t clear, “but certainly this Administration is no friend to things like knives and guns,” he said.

A successful campaign to change the definition would mean thousands would be out of work in the knife industry, and the impact would have far-reaching effects.

He said the proposal, which puts pocketknives in the classification of switchblades—described by a Senate committee as “almost exclusively the weapon of the thug and the delinquent”—isn’t fair.

“There are 40 million people in America walking around with pocketknives in their pocket,” he said.

Further, the majority of crimes committed with knives are done with the “lowly kitchen knife,” he said.

According to SAF founder Alan Gottlieb, who also serves as CCRKBA chairman, “The right to bear arms is not limited to guns.”

“Knives should certainly fall under the broad definition of arms,” he observed.

Mike Friel, director of media relations for CBP, declined to comment when Workman contacted him, stating only that the public comment period ran through June 21.

The American Knife & Tool Institute (ATKI) is also involved in the opposition movement, hiring specialists to fight the proposal. On its website, AKTI notes that “The definition of a switchblade or automatic knife has been clear and explicit in federal law since 1958. There have been several state court cases in California, Texas, Illinois and Michigan on the issue of assisted-opening knives.  Every judge in every case has ruled they are not switchblades because they do not possess an activating button on the handle.”

Doug Flagg with Columbia River Knife & Tool, an Oregon-based knife manufacturer and importer, called the situation “a mess” when contacted by Gun Week.

Before CRKT began importing knives with their patented “Outburst” mechanism, they obtained a binding ruling from Customs that allowed the importation of these knives, Flagg told Workman. Because there is no button in the handle of an Outburst-equipped knife, it does not fall under the current switchblade definition.

Thomas Welk, national sales manager with Kershaw, also based in Oregon, told Workman that the short comment period and mail requirement seemed “strange.”

“It’s kind of a drag in this electronic age,” he acknowledged.

Kershaw, Columbia River and other knife makers are working through AKTI, which estimates more than 35 million owners of folding knives “would become de facto criminals if Customs has their way,” according to the AKTI website.

“If US Customs succeeds,” according to AKTI, “they will effectively ban all folding knives from interstate commerce. Individuals who cross state lines into states where switchblades are banned will be subject to arrest and prosecution.

“We fear that they are attempting to bypass the will of Congress and that once they succeed in getting assisted-openers defined as switchblades,” AKTI added, “they could move against all folding knives.”

Most of the gunowners, hunters, fishermen and outdoor recreations I know probably own more folding knives than they can remember. Most of them probably sit in storage somewhere, but now bureaucrats in Washington are threatening to outlaw many of those knives and put millions of Americans in jeopardy of becoming criminals, not through legislation, but by sudden rulemaking.