How would we petition to get the knife-laws changed in OK?

[sanjuro893]

Many of those city ordinances are listed in this thread:

http://www.okshooters.com/showthread.php?1824-knife-question

You have to search for a lot of the ordinances, but here's a quote from Crosstimbers Okie who did a lot of research on it:
"Oklahoma state law prohibits nothing based on blade length. There are three municipalities that I'm aware of that limit knives by blade length. They are: Muskogee, six inches (13-421 & 13-422) and Norman, four inches (15-504) . In Oklahoma City there's an ordinance against offering for sale or exhibit pocketknives with blades greater than four inches (30-311 & 30-302). Look out Walmart!"

 

[NikatKimber]

I certainly support a change in the knife laws.

While I don't have any switchblades or OTF or ballisong knives, I don't think they should be illegal to carry.

I do have a Gerber Mk1 that I'd love to be able to carry.

 

[Sumshooter]

Is anyone here a member of Knife Rights (kniferights.org)

I went to their site. It looks like several states are changing their laws on knives.

 

[twoguns?]

Carry a fixed blade......ummmim goin huntin.
I agree they should be changed, but not just for those few that were , gifted , a Carry license.
I'll look into kniferights, that may be the way to go.

 

[TwoForFlinching]

We should picket and lobby the capital building with midevil LARP swords

 

[Nighthawk]

So, Oklahoma's knife laws have always been sort of a gripe with me (every since I got into knives) and I'd like to make some attempt to change them (I don't have high hopes, but what the heck).

So, what's the process to get the current bill amended? I assume we file some sort of official petition (it is 2012, so I would hope we could do this online - I attempted to google, but there's a lot of legal jargon that I don't have any idea as to what specific type of petition we'd want), and then what - it goes before Oklahoma legislature... possibly hitting the floor as a bill-change/update and then if enough congressman/women want to move forward with it - it becomes a bill?

Here is the official state law regarding carrying of knives (the famous 21-1272):

http://oklegal.onenet.net/oklegal-cgi/get_statute?99/Title.21/21-1272.html




The Bolded-Red parts are what I would pull out personally (I don't know if we have any sword-cane fans in the OSA crowd), but I'm open to suggestions. I assume we would want the text to be agreed upon and perfect before starting to collect signatures.





I know we have some legal-minds on OSA, so if a fee needs to be paid to file, I'm actually willing to pay for it and sort of oversee this thing all the way to the State Capitol.

Would we have any sort of support from the OSA community if I took this on? It might involve actually having to sit at a booth at a gunshow and having folks sign this petition (I would volunteer to do that for every show I could attend on this side of the state).

What say you OSA?

Better than that, If you will write the bill, and PM it to me I will give it to the correct person to introduce it as a law.

Mark

 

[Nighthawk]

I guess you did not want to law changed that bad, becuase I did not get a bill from anyone.

 

[sanjuro893]

I'm still for it. Who knows how to write in "legalese"?

 

[dennishoddy]

I think knives are too dangerous for the public to carry. Only military and law enforcement should be allowed to carry such a dangerous weapon.

 

[vvvvvvv]

I'm sure VeggieMeat will be along shortly to fill in the legislative action details but the quick and dirty version is this: first, you have to get a legislator on your side that is willing to front the proposal and use staff to turn it into a bill. Perhaps approaching some of the OC legislators would be a good opening for the proposal. Second, you're likely already too late for the next legislative session that opens in February because the bills that will move forward have already had preliminary work done this fall in working groups. So, set your sights on the 2014 session to begin enlisting legislators to your proposal. Anticipate that it will not succeed the first time so you can adjust the proposal to get wider support. Note those legislators that are roadblocks and support their opposition in the next election while educating them as candidates.

Actually, with the unconstitutional rules of the House of Representatives, you're not too late. And you're also not too late in the Senate. In the Senate, a bill can be constitutionally rewritten completely in committee. In the House, a bill can be unconstitutionally rewritten completely in committee. In both chambers, a bill can be rewritten completely on the Floor, as well as through a joint-committee that gets established to reconcile two conflicting versions of a passed bill.

You will NEED both a Representative and a Senator to sign on as authors. Neither chamber can accept a bill from the other without an author from their own chamber.

It would be good for everyone to contact their local Representative and Senator and get a commitment from them to sign on as an author. If you want to hold their feet to the fire, publish the email where they said they would sign on as an author to a bill amending Oklahoma's knife laws with the specific amendments that you are wanting.

Constituents in the districts represented by the Speaker and Senate Pro Tem have an even stronger duty to lobby their legislators. Next would be those whose legislators are Floor Leaders, Assistant Floor Leaders, and other named positions just as Majority Whip, as well as caucus leaders. Let them know that their re-election has a strong possibility of riding on their support (or lack thereof) of your bill.

And you will need to keep it in the front of each legislators mind on an ongoing basis, but not to the point where they feel harassed. Politicians have very delicate feelings and can be fragile.

Petitions only serve one purpose in Oklahoma when it comes to changing law. If one files a proposed amendment to the Oklahoma constitution, then you have a limited amount of time to obtain a (very large) number of signatures on a petition. If you succeed, your proposal becomes a state question and the public votes on it in an election. If that vote gets a majority, your proposed amendment becomes a part of the constitution.

That would not work for this issue, IMO. Could you imagine the opposition campaigning against this? Oh, and the news media...

What may work is to get a legislator to sponsor a bill, then for you to follow it a lobby for it all the way through the legislative process. Then convince the Governor to sign it. Then you wait for Nov 1 for it to actually go into effect.

You don't even need to get into the media campaigns. The cost for an initiative petition runs $600-$700K+/- just to get it on the ballot. Then you'll need a few million dollars more for the campaign. It's simply not feasible unless you're a national public employees union whose Oklahoma lobbyists and campaign directors weren't even registered to vote in Oklahoma.

I'm still for it. Who knows how to write in "legalese"?

I could probably do a draft in the format the legislature wants (minus line numbers) if given the roadmap to ALL of Oklahoma's knife laws. Remember, guns aren't only addressed in 21 OS §§ 1272, 1289, and 1290. They are also addressed in many other places in Title 21 as well as Title 19, Title 63, Title 70, Title 74, and Title 76 (off the top of my head). However, I couldn't guarantee it to be ready in time for the legal staff in each chamber to actually write it.

Of course, it'd come from a libertarian's point of view on what they should be...