MONDAY, JULY 31, 2006
Monday Edition: Tiny Deadly New Pocketknives
So much attention gets turned on guns, but so little is ever mentioned about knives.
The
FBI says this year, it's likely that more than 1,000 law-enforcement
agents will be attacked with an "edged weapon" of some kind.
The Wall Street Journal ran a piece recently about tactical pocketknives -- now a billion-dollar business.
The FBI says this is a big issue:
A review of 20 years of law-enforcement injury reports in the United
States indicated that on average, 1,358 officers are attacked with
edged weapons each year. This
number has fluctuated over time, with its lowest point of 871 attacks
in 1996 and the highest of 2,095 in 1992. On average, over the 20-year
period, between three and four knife attacks on officers have occurred
every day. This statistic alone illustrates the need for further
edged-weapon awareness.
The Journal story explains:
These 21st century
pocketknives, with their curved, perforated or serrated blades and
ergonomic grips, can inflict deadly damage, but they are also compact,
easily concealed and virtually unregulated.
In March, a monthly
FBI bulletin alerted law-enforcement agents nationwide to "the emerging
threats" posed by the knives. Though there are no statistics on how
many crimes have involved tactical-style knives, the FBI says
knife-related crimes have edged up, to 15.5 percent in 2004 from 15
percent in 2000. In that time, violent crime in general dropped 4.1
percent.
The knives' popularity has been a boon to some retailers. Mike Janes, owner of Second Amendment Sports, a hunting, fishing and camping superstore in Bakersfield, Calif.,
says that knife sales have been climbing an average of 25 percent a
year in the past decade and that 75 percent of the pocketknives he
sells are tactical. "Are you tacti-cool? That's what we say down here,"
Mr. Janes says.
The Journal story continues:
But the marketing techniques for some of the new pocketknives aren't so mainstream. Cold Steel Inc. makes the 3/4-ounce "Urban
Pal," which has a 1.5-inch blade. "The Urban Pal should be standard
equipment for survival in today's urban jungle," its Web site says.
Lawyers for the tactical-knife industry have persuaded government
officials that even minor manual movement -- no matter how enhanced by
levers and springs -- separates the knives from switchblades, which
require pressing a button on the handle to flip open the blade. "We
have to resist the application of the 1950s switchblade laws to the new
technology," says lawyer Daniel Lawson, a knife collector in Pittsburgh
who represents the tactical-knife industry. Thirty-seven states now
outlaw switchblades, partly because they developed a cult following
among teenagers in the 1950s. But, says David Kowalski, a former knife
magazine editor and a spokesman for the industry, tactical knifes have
remained legal because "the laws across the U.S. are a mishmash because (legislators) really don't know anything about knives."
Modern tactical knives are rooted in the 1980s, when some martial artists in the U.S.
became practitioners of a Filipino style of knife-fighting. An early
innovator was Ernest R. Emerson, a martial artist and custom knife
builder. In 1995, Oregon's Benchmade Knife Co.
collaborated with Mr. Emerson to mass produce the Closed Quarters
Combat 7 knife. It opened quickly, locked in place and could be closed
with one hand.
Mr. Emerson, 51 years old, says he insisted on selling that knife
for $159, believing the high price, performance and custom look would
give it cachet. The knife was a hit, and competition got hot. Mr.
Emerson formed his own company in 1997 and says annual sales rose to
about $10 million last year from $800,000 at the start.
Worried that they might face regulatory scrutiny, makers of the new-style pocketknives formed the American Knife and Tool Institute.
The trade group credits U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, with
persuading U.S. Customs in 2001 to stop seizing shipments of one-hand-opening tactical knives
that some investigators considered switchblades. A spokesman for Sen.
Wyden, Andrew Blotky, says he can't confirm the senator's involvement.
Take a look at this
2003 bulletin from the FBI
about concealable knives [PDF]. It is mind-boggling how many ways
people
have created to hide blades. You'll be able to see knives hidden in
everything from canes to crosses to belt buckles. A quick trip to the
police department evidence locker could be worthwhile.
Before you write off knife enthusiasts as a bunch of blade-wielding nuts, you should spend some time in their forums.
Many are lovers of craftsmanship and history. Some knifemaking
companies take great pride in the quality of the materials they use and
the skill that high-end knifemaking requires. Here is a huge collection of forums.
Other places to learn more:
Horse Slaughter Comes Before Congress
Congress appears to be moving
toward closing the remaining three slaughterhouses in the U.S. that still kill
horses and ship the meat to Europe and Japan. House Majority Leader
John Boehner said the House will vote on the issue when it returns from
its summer recess in September.
The Rural Blog is tracking this story:
A bill to halt horse slaughter in the U.S. for human consumption,
mainly by Europeans and Japanese, came under fire Tuesday before a
House committee. [See the witness list from the hearing. There are more than 200 co-sponsors for the bill right now.]
"Opponents of the
trade focused on the widespread revulsion to horse meat. Defenders
argued that owners should have the right to dispose of animals as they
see fit," writes Todd Gillman of the Dallas Morning News, reporting on the Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. One of the horsemeat plants, owned by Belgians, is in Fort Worth, [Texas].
Both sides agreed
that current methods of handling thousands of unwanted horses pose
problems and that horses should receive humane treatment. But they
differ on definitions of humane treatment, with opponents of horse
slaughter saying "the bill would end cruel transportation and killing
methods now in practice despite government regulations" and supporters
saying slaughter is more humane than letting horses starve, writes
Janet Patton of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader. (Read more)
Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens was among those testifying for the bill. [See bill in full.] "Texas
has a dirty secret that should shame all of us," he said. "This is a
black eye on our state and our nation that demands action." Click here for a video interview with Pickens from the Morning News, including a short hidden-camera video from inside a horsemeat plant, from the [Humane Society of the United States]. (Read more)
Last year, Congress voted to block funding for U.S. Department of Agriculture
meat inspectors who are supposed to look after horse carcasses exported
for human consumption. The department then accepted an offer from
slaughterhouses to pay for their own horsemeat inspections in a "fee
for services" setup that did not use taxpayer monies.
Here are some more resources for you to use as you pursue this story:
Congress
added language to the 1996 Farm Bill concerning the commercial
transportation of equines to slaughtering facilities after having
determined that equines being transported to slaughter have unique and
special needs. [Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] established regulations to set minimum standards
to ensure humane movement of equines to slaughtering facilities via
commercial transportation. These regulations cover, among other things,
the food, water, and rest provided for such equines. The regulations
also require the owner/shipper of the equines certify that the
commercial transportation meets certain requirements. In addition, the
regulations prohibit the commercial transportation to slaughtering
facilities of equines considered to be unfit for travel, the use of
electric prods on equines in commercial transportation to slaughter and
requires that existing double-deck trailers be eliminated within the
next 5 years.
A Sort of MySpace for Seniors Launches Today
Today, Eons.com will launch. It is a $10-million social network from Jeff Taylor, the founder of Monster.com, aimed at the 50-plus crowd.
Taylor told The Wall Street Journal that he hopes the site will become the "online center of gravity" for the 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964. The Journal
says an increasing number of media companies are seeing baby boomers as a
target audience that will have a lot of money, education and, soon,
time to pay attention to the products and services that Web sites, magazines and TV networks
are peddling. If that is true, it will be a remarkable shift for the
youth-obsessed media market.
The Big-Box Law
I want to make sure you noticed the big story out of Chicago last week.
The city council there passed the so-called "Big Box" law, which requires
Chicago's big-box retailers (such as Wal-Mart) to pay employees a "living
wage" of at least $10 an hour and $3 in benefits by 2010. The
bill affects stores that measure 90,000 square feet at this point, but opponents say there is
little to keep it from affecting smaller employers in the future.
Wal-Mart says the law could affect the store's expansion plans in Chicago. From The Associated Press:
"This
(ordinance) imposes special interest mandates that will unfairly deny
savings and job opportunities to those who need them most," Michael
Lewis, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of store operations, said in a
statement. "It's wrong for the City Council to tell the people of
Chicago where to shop and to make it harder for inner-city residents to
find jobs."
Wal-Mart
spokesman John Bisio said earlier that if the measure passed, "We'd
redirect our focus on our suburban strategy and see how we could better
serve our city of Chicago residents from suburban Chicagoland."
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association is opposed to the council's decision. Here is a link to more coverage. If this spreads beyond Chicago, it would be quite a big deal.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas,
edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites,
as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes
directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be
provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends
upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors
and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
Posted at 10:22:45 AM
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