Knife Rights Denied Cert by SCOTUS – Nevertheless HUGE WIN FOR KNIFE RIGHTS!

The Supreme Court of the United States denied Plaintiff’s petition for a Writ of Certiorari, ending eight years of Knife Rights’ federal civil rights litigation against New York City and District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. The Court’s denial would be more disappointing had the strong possibility of being granted Cert not been a major factor pushing Governor Cuomo to sign A5944 just a couple weeks ago, repealing the state’s gravity knife ban.

A5944 enacted critical criminal justice reform to end the arrests of persons carrying common folding knives in New York City on gravity knife charges. As long as they abide by NYC’s minimal restrictions, folks should be able to carry their common tools in the City now without fear (excepting possibly in the subways and buses – SEE BELOW). That is a HUGE win in our long-running fight for justice.

Our determined, two-pronged strategy proved successful against the largest city in America. They won the battle in court in the end, but they lost the war because Knife Rights’ bottom-line aim of stopping the arrests and prosecutions in New York City has been achieved.

When we started this litigation effort in 2010, the odds of a legislative solution were about zero…or less. That didn’t stop Knife Rights from joining with Assemblymember Dan Quart to pursue a legislative solution. For a number of years we were stymied in Albany. In 2016 and 2017 bills were passed overwhelmingly with Quart’s leadership, but Cuomo vetoed them, even as he called the entire mess “absurd.” Despite how futile it may have seemed at times, we stood strong with Quart and Senate sponsor Sen. Diane Savino and kept pursuing a legislative solution. At the same time we continued to pursue our case. We never gave up, we never lost heart.

In the end, Knife Rights’ perseverance, persistence, and dogged determination won out. All the naysayers urging us to abandon the effort and leave New Yorkers to their diminished knife freedom were wrong. That’s how Knife Rights gets it done for knife owners in America. Our record of 31 bills repealing knife bans enacted in 22 states in 9 years is testament to that.

This is actually quite a long release.  Click Here to read the whole thing.