The Knife Junkie Podcast is the place for knife newbies and knife junkies to learn about knives and knife collecting. Twice per week Bob DeMarco talks knives. Email Bob at theknifejunkie@gmail.com; visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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Announcer [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast. Your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your host, Bob The Knife Junkie DeMarco.

Doug Ritter [00:00:16]:
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast. I'm Bob DeMarco. On this edition of the show, I'm speaking with Doug Ritter of Knife Rights. Doug is a founding member of the organization that is most likely responsible for for you being able to carry the knives you carry where you carry them. For instance, if it weren't for Doug and Knife Rights, it would still be illegal for me to own or carry automatic knives in the great Commonwealth of Virginia. We'll catch up with Doug and find out who Knife Rights has liberated lately. But first, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, hit the notification bell and download the show to your favorite podcast app. Also, if you'd like to, you can share the show with a friend.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:57]:
That helps the show greatly. Or you can go to Patreon and sign up there for our great program at Patreon. Quickest way to do that is to scan the QR code on the screen or go to the knife junkie.com Patreon Again, that address is the knife junkie.com/patreon

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Bob DeMarco [00:01:47]:
Doug, welcome back to the show. It's great to see you my friend.

Doug Ritter [00:01:50]:
Always, always a pleasure. Always a pleasure Bob.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:52]:
Well, just before we get into some of the activities that Knife Rights has been involved in lately, let's, let's just go back through your history a little bit, let people know, remind people who you are and how you got into the knife world. I know most people know who you are and they've plenty of them have met you at Blade Show. But let's talk about the RSK and how you got into knives.

Doug Ritter [00:02:16]:
First off, how did I get into knives? Well, you know, unlike a lot of current generation folks, I grew up with knives. I got my first knife from my grandparents grandfather. I don't know, I was like 6 or 7 years old, grew up on a ranch. A knife was just part of what you did and you know, fast forward eventually end up becoming a survival equipment authority throughout some of my flying and aviation work as a, as a journalist. And in 2006, well, no, I guess back up as part of my survival stuff and my Equipped to survive website, got to know all the manufacturers and I would always end up recommending a knife and it would be, you know, get this knife, but, and there was always something on the, on the end of the butt. And eventually it got to the point where I was able to get a knife manufactured with, you know, my name on it. And, and about the same time, you know, we launched knife rights in. I launched knife rights in 2006 and by 2009 we participated in our first legislative action at the US Congress to help get the fifth exemption to the federal switch right act passed.

Doug Ritter [00:04:06]:
And the next year, in 2010, we passed our first two bills through state legislatures. Getting rid of New Hampshire's ban on switchblades, dirks and daggers and then passing the nation's first night claw preemption statute in Arizona. You know, here we are in 2025 with like 58 wins. Knife laws repeal preemption bans, passed some other positive work for knife owners in legislation as well as winning a few court battles. What is a journey?

Bob DeMarco [00:04:53]:
What is a preemption ban?

Doug Ritter [00:04:56]:
So preemption means that no local jurisdictions, cities, counties, towns can have a knife ban that's more restrictive than the state ban. Sometimes we get preemption passed and then go through and get the state bans repealed. Sometimes we get the state bans repealed, then get preemption. Every once in a while we get it all done in, in one state session. But the, the two pillars upon which knife rights works are getting rid of knife bands that have been in existence for 50 to 100 years and passing knife law preemption so that, you know, yeah, you're in a state with great law, but you pass a city line and suddenly you're knife is illegal. So we don't want to do that. Those are, those are the two things we focus on mostly through legislation and more and more these days through litigation. We've got three federal lawsuits currently running, so never a dull moment at knife rights.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:15]:
Well, I want to get to those three federal lawsuits, but before that, where did these hundred year old restrictive knife bands come from? Why were these laws enacted in the first place?

Doug Ritter [00:06:29]:
So the vast majority of knife bands that were busy repealing came about either after the civil war or in the 1950s. After the Civil War, there was an effort to keep the recently freed black from having weapons. First they did firearms. They couldn't own firearms Then they started carrying big knives. So that's where we got our bowie knife restrictions, length limits and, and a bunch of that kind of stuff after the Civil War and then in the 1950s, we saw the passage of bans against switchblades occur, you know, mostly for totally made up reasons. And, and that was another example of some racist laws passed against Puerto Rican and black gangs. Supposedly that, that may or may not have existed in certainly movies played a part in spreading that message.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:46]:
West side Story, that kind of thing.

Doug Ritter [00:07:48]:
West side Story, it's it there, there it. Fake news is nothing new, let's put it that way. This was a problem that didn't exist. That was turned into a problem that existed in the minds of a lot of politicians. It was an opportunity to say, see, we're doing something about, you know, nothing really. But you know, 50 years later we spend a good part of our time getting rid of those bands on switchblades as well as Dirk Staggers Bowie knives till we fixed it. Most people don't believe that. Oh, in Texas it was illegal to carry a boot.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:35]:
Yeah, yeah. Of all places.

Doug Ritter [00:08:37]:
Of all places. So there, there are way more knife bands than there are firearm bands, but there's a whole lot less because of the work that we've done in the last 10 years. 15 years, I guess. 15 years.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:53]:
I remember in a high school course studying the 1950s, we watched Rebel Without a Cause and, and I know that juvenile delinquency, like that term was a big catchphrase in the 1950s and you know, fighting against juvenile delinquency and you know, he used a switchblade in Rebel Without a Cause. And I know that that was a big scary thing.

Doug Ritter [00:09:18]:
Well, the, the, the, the article in a women's magazine that started all the switchblade bans by a so called journalist was titled the Toy that Kills. It was all about, you know, juveniles purchasing Swiss blades and going out and killing people. And there, there's not a bit of factual evidence that that was occurring. It was entirely made up. So then, and then we started getting the, the movies, we started getting the plays. It just, it just steamrolled into something that we've been living with for over 50 years, 60 years now.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:04]:
Yeah, 12 angry men too. I remember seeing that. So when you're working on changing legislation in various state legislative bodies, can you leverage the, can you leverage the, the term racism or, or the fact that these are racist laws to, to kind of convince legislators to make these changes?

Doug Ritter [00:10:32]:
It certainly helps. I, we are the only second Amendment organization that gets support from the other side of the aisle, if you will. And, and that, that is a result of both the fact that most of these laws we are repealing have some racist roots and also the fact that all too often it is those people who are being charged with crimes involving knives just for carrying a knife. You know, we're, we're, we're not about decriminalizing the illegal use of a knife to harm someone, but carrying a knife, whether it's as a tool or for self defense, that's, that's where we draw the line, if you will. And criminal justice reform is very important to both sides of the aisle. And that is a major, that is a major talking point for us for both. Second Amendment serves us well on the right side of the aisle. Criminal justice reform served us well on the left side of the aisle.

Doug Ritter [00:11:47]:
It's, it's a unique dynamic that we get their support. We, we have Democratic legislators who support our efforts who are about as anti gun as you can get. Our success in Texas started out with a legislator who decided purely for public relations reasons to make a point to sponsor a bill that would have repealed their switch. Texas had a possession and carry switchblade day. The total switchblade day. And, and his point in this press release and, and appearance on TV stations was, okay, well if we're gonna allow these evil AR15s, that we should at least allow switchblades. And it, it was purely a stunt. He didn't mean it.

Doug Ritter [00:12:53]:
And, and I sent our lobby, when I read that and saw and, and saw the online video, I called our lobbyist, said, you're going to Austin. And he did. And he talked to the legislature and Harold said, wow. And he's been our sponsor in Texas getting rid of Texas night bands fully but surely ever since, and he still hates guns.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:23]:
There's something very sweet about that. I, I love hearing that. Warms the cockles in my heart. Because what started off as kind of a cynical stunt has turned into something good.

Doug Ritter [00:13:34]:
Yes, look, once you, there are, there is so much bad feelings about switchblades and daggers and things like that. And as a result of this myth that's built up about how evil these are, and when we sit down with these legislators and we demonstrate that, you know, they don't open any faster than, than any other one hand opening knife, and they certainly don't open any faster than a small fixed blade knife in your pocket. You can see the light bulb go on and they're like, oh yeah, and it's criminal justice that doesn't work in some states. You know, that's not going to work in some place like California or Minnesota where it's just so overwhelmingly anti everything, which is why we're suing people in the Supreme Court, suing the state in those cases. But it does work for us in the majority of states that we work in. And, and that's been a huge advantage for a little organization like us, you know, basically three people in getting all this done.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:57]:
Do you think that the general distaste for knives in terms of self defense as opposed to guns has to do with the personal nature of using a knife in a self defense? The closeness?

Doug Ritter [00:15:12]:
I don't know that it does. I, I, I think, I think to a lot of the people that we deal with, so legislators, judges, they still have this west side image in their head and they can't get rid of it. It's amazing that 60 years after that movie appeared that it still ends up in conversation. It, you can still see that the, the mindset of these people is, it is the result of, of this myth that, that they grew up with. I don't, I don't, you know, the, the anti self defense folks are anti self defense folks, but they can seem to make it, some of them can see, make it exception for knives when they're, when, when you sit down with them and, and demonstrate and explain it all to them. You know, the vast majority of knives are used for tools. I mean you can say the same thing for firearms, but that's different for these folks. And I'm happy to take advantage of the fact that they're willing to separate those two issues, which is part of the reason we've been so successful.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:42]:
So what is happening on the federal stage right now?

Doug Ritter [00:16:46]:
So on the federal stage we are back in court with our lawsuit challenging the federal Switchblade Act. With the exception of the import ban, we're challenging it on second amendment grounds. We lost the district court in one of the oddest decisions that you could ever read by a judge who clearly still has west side Story in his mouth mind. We're up on appeal. Our appeal is due in 20 days. First draft looks good. The attorneys are, we're going over that. It's a process.

Doug Ritter [00:17:35]:
I think we're going to win eventually. That is, the government argued that they don't enforce it, but we have proof that they have and they've certainly not decreed not enforcing it in the future. So you know, we've won on this issue, for example, against Philadelphia and we will continue Pounding it after Bruin. After the Bruin decision, we have, we have good arguments. We still have judges in both this issue and many others who decided that they're not going to listen to the Supreme Court or they're going to try to find ways to weasel out of what the Supreme Court said. But knives are one of the most commonly owned arms in America, if not the most commonly owned arm in America. You know, our, our, our logo says essential tools, essential rights. And when you go to court, we're talking about Second Amendment rights.

Doug Ritter [00:18:52]:
And they're arms, they're common. They're just another version of a folding knife. They're legal now as a result of our work in 47 states to one degree or another. They're legal to carry in 39 states. Some states have some length limitations, and we've been working on that. But they are overwhelmingly common. And if they're a common arm, there really is, and, and they're not unusually dangerous or, or anything which we could show they're not, then they're legal under the Bruin decision. And so it's frustrating to have to go through district courts who seem to be uniformly opposed to this.

Doug Ritter [00:19:47]:
By the luck of the draw we get, we've gotten those judges in California and in, in Texas where we're suing on the Federal Social Blade Act. But eventually we will get to where we want to be and we're going to win this. It's just going to take years and a ridiculous amount of money. And we'll see what happens with the Department of Justice when they respond to our appeal brief, whether they're going to actually uphold the President and the, and, and, and the DOJ's commitment to the Second Amendment like they say they will, or they're going to revert back to, to something else and oppose us. And, and we all know that for.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:45]:
Couple months you mentioned that that federal judge made the oddest decision you've heard. What was odd about it?

Doug Ritter [00:20:54]:
There were a lot of odd things about it, including completely ignoring our plaintiff, who is a Native American who moved from Arizona to a home where he lives on a Native American reservation and therefore cannot, could not take his, could not legally take his switchblade with him when he moved. That is the clearest case of a prohibition under Bruin in terms of plaintiffs that he literally ignored. He raised some standing issues on some parts of our, some parts of the Federal Switch Blade act for just like. No, we're not going to consider. You're, you have standing on this issue, which I don't really want. He literally said basically in as many words, I don't want to give you standing because I don't like this, but I have to give you standing on this, this one section. But you know, the Federal Social Aid act has multiple sections and I'm not going to give you standing on this other section, which is just bizarre. And, and then his ultimate rationale we're finding against us was that, well, the fact that you cannot have interstate commerce doesn't matter because all these states make it legal and intra state within the state commerce is legal.

Doug Ritter [00:22:37]:
Which completely ignores the entire point of the, the entire lawsuit. It was reading it for the first time. It was, you know, bizarre and scratching your head like what? But you know, the. Just as we found in California with our judge there at the district court level. And, and now here they know we are right, but they're grasping at straws and coming up with utterly ridiculous theories on why. Yeah, but it doesn't matter. And you know, that's the way our system works. The good news is, you know, I think we're, we're going to win.

Doug Ritter [00:23:28]:
I mean, I wouldn't be spending this money and time if I didn't think we could win. But it's frustrating to have to go through the years of effort to get to that point.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:42]:
It's like they're being willfully oblique and pretending they don't understand.

Doug Ritter [00:23:47]:
Yeah, well, yeah, pretending. Well, like what they're doing is, is saying, yeah, Brun says this, but you lose on this basis, which has no, no standing. When you actually look at Bruin decisions. So they come up with stuff, weaseling out with theories that make no sense.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:12]:
So something recently happened in your state of Arizona. Tell us about that.

Doug Ritter [00:24:18]:
So a number of years ago actually in the, in the town that I live in, a young man was brutally attacked and almost killed by somebody who used brass knuckles. And he survived. They've been prosecuted. They actually did kill one individual, though not with brass knuckles. And the mother of this young man has made it a campaign to try to outlaw brass knuckles. She's tried at the legislative level for a couple years, which we have been able to defeat. And then she turned her sights onto individual towns to try to get them to illegally ban brass knuckles. And, and that's an issue for us because of karambits and trench knives and, and D guard buoys and that sort of thing.

Doug Ritter [00:25:20]:
And, and we have been able to convince a number of towns that if you want to do this for miners, we have no legal standing to oppose you. But if you do these for adults, then that is a violation of both the Second Amendment, Arizona's constitution, which has the equivalent of the Second Amendment in it, Article 2, Section 26, and Arizona's knife law preemption statute. That as I mentioned, was first in the nation. And, and they've listened to us and they listened to us until we got to Tempe. Tempe is a significantly sized city in the Valley and in the, in the Phoenix metro area is home for Arizona State University. And, and we had the conversation with them and they said yet tough. And last year they passed a, a very broad brass knuckles ban. And, and we've been working towards fighting it ever since.

Doug Ritter [00:26:41]:
There's a process in Arizona that you can go through when someone unconstitutionally does something. And the, the just this week the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee sent a notice to the city of Tempe basically saying, you guys are breaking the law. This is unconstitutional. You might want to rethink this. And that's the first step in a process that under Arizona law exists for un. Unconstit unconstitutional violations of law. So it's a process. This is the first step.

Doug Ritter [00:27:32]:
We'll see what happens. A lot of cities and towns, when presented with these sorts of letters for legislators, see the light and, and, and either eliminate or change their statute to conform. And that's all we really want. I mean I never, I never thought that knife rights would become knuckles rights. Yeah, but, but, but here we are. And especially being my own state, it, it's annoying.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:02]:
So I know recently in Delaware they had a large action with their Switchblade Act, I believe it was. And actually friends of the show from Willie Knives where they're testifying.

Doug Ritter [00:28:16]:
Yeah, they were, they were, the Willie Knives folks were a big part of getting this done, pushing their own legislator to, to file the, the repeal bill. And we were happy to get involved in this, send our lobbyists to the capital to testify and ultimately the result was that you can now carry a, a switchblade. In Delaware. There are some limitations. We'll eventually work towards getting rid of those, but that, that's huge. Delaware was, you know, like Illinois and some other states where people never expected the law to be repealed, where we've been successful and as often happens, it starts out with someone in the state saying can't we get rid of this? And going to their legislator or coming to us and working with their legislator. And, and we are, we, we are very happy when someone in the state wants to make a difference. We've been there We've done that.

Doug Ritter [00:29:37]:
We know how to do it and we're happy to step in and help when we can and we're happy to make it happen because of the expertise we bring to the party.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:51]:
Well, I think it's very, very important to know your state laws. Actually, I didn't think that for a long time. Actually I was kind of like, well, I don't get in trouble, you know, I'm fine. But then after talking with you a few times, I realized, you know, you could really be, you really be sent up the river for nothing or for, for carrying something that you have no intent to use in a harmful way.

Doug Ritter [00:30:15]:
The, the vast majority of states we work in, there are lots of people illegally carrying, whether it's switchblades, dirt, staggers, long knife longer than allowed. And it's not a problem right up until it becomes a problem. And that's the issue. There are a lot of places that these laws are not enforced on a regular basis, but when they are enforced, it's bad news for that person. And all it takes is a traffic stop or a law enforcement officer who's having a bad day or, you know, doesn't take much to turn your day upside down when all you're doing is carrying a tool or an arm for self defense. And it's never been a problem until it's a problem and it's a big problem. That's when we, that's when we get the phone call. That's when I get the phone call, that's when I get the email.

Doug Ritter [00:31:26]:
I was just arrested, what do I do now? And it's depressing when you talk to these folks and see how these normally law abiding citizens have been caught up in something that oftentimes they had no idea that they were breaking the law. I mean, it wasn't even a case of well, I'm going to carry a swift blade. Screw it. It's a case of I had no idea or I feel for these folks. And that's, those are the sorts of things that caused me to continue to work on this issue when I could sensibly retire. And, and, but, but you can't do this without a passion for what you're doing. And I'm passionate about the issue because I've seen how badly lives are affected when things go wrong.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:30]:
It's, it's especially irksome to, to, you know, to say the least when so many actual violent criminals get a pass or are, oh, he had a, you know, he had a rough childhood. So let's let him off essentially and then some regular, like you said, law abiding citizen gets caught up and we're going to make an example of this guy. That's, that's really what gets under my skin.

Doug Ritter [00:33:00]:
Unfortunately it happens every day. We're, we're seeing a little bit of the tide turning with the current administration in, in terms of actually prosecuting criminals for doing criminal acts and not prosecuting honest law abiding citizens who are just going about their day. You know, if anyone's interested in what the law is in their state, we have our Legal Blade app. In fact, literally yesterday the latest update to the Legal Blade was finally finished by our app controller, our app.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:42]:
Guy.

Doug Ritter [00:33:43]:
He, it's live currently on the App store. For those with apples, it will be live shortly. For those with Android. It's got the laws of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It includes links which are also on our website to articles about what to do if you're arrested, what to do if you unfortunately are forced to use your knife in self defense. It has links to where you can find local knife laws. We can't list the knife laws of every city and town and the US but we can tell you how to easily find those and provide links to websites that will allow you to find them. I think it's important, especially if you're traveling from out into a state you're not familiar with, to check and see what the knife laws are.

Doug Ritter [00:34:44]:
There's no sense asking for trouble by carrying a knife when you're traveling. That is illegal where you're going.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:53]:
I do that every time I leave the state. I have Legal App right on, you know, first page of my phone. And the thing that's awesome about, about Legal blade or yeah, Legal blade up is how easy it is to interpret on a, on a quick, you know, on a, on the, on the fly what you can carry where you're going. I live it, you know, in Virginia, near D.C. and Maryland and I'm always checking this or we went to Delaware recently actually and you can just tell, you can see very easily just from looking at it and looking at the color coding what you can carry. Sword cane. You can't carry that anywhere. Ballistic.

Doug Ritter [00:35:34]:
Yeah, there are a lot of places you can carry a sword. Can I live in Arizona you can carry a sword. I mean you can carry a Cortana. In fact, we had an instance a couple of years ago where a gentleman on our light rail defended someone who's being attacked with the katana that he happened to be carrying. So not, not every state is as free as Arizona, but we're working on it. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:03]:
Wow. Yeah. So I, I highly recommend Legal Blade. It's a great app. It's very easy to see, is very easy to interpret, you know, especially if you're not a lawyer in your, it's hard to read laws oftentimes and, and to really have a good handle on it. So Legal Blade makes it easy. What do you think about self defense insurance or, or, or that kind of thing?

Doug Ritter [00:36:30]:
Well, we, we have partnered with U.S. law Shield when I started looking at the issue of what happens in self defense cases with any weapon. But you know, firearms come to the fore. You know, it turns out that you can be on the right, it can be a totally righteous self defense case and particularly in some states, um, you're the one who's going to get prosecuted and the legal bill for that can get huge. And you, you, you know, there are a lot of good court appointed attorneys, legal aid attorneys, but niFlaw and the Second Amendment are not their strong points. And, and so we teamed with US Law Shield who cover the use of any arm in self defense, including your, your hands, as a way to give our members for a pretty inexpensive amount of money per year to protect themselves and their family. If, if you own, if you own anything, whether it's a firearm, a knife, a machete, a sword or a baseball bat with the intent to possibly use that to defend yourself whether you're at home or away from home, then you owe yourself and your family to carry the insurance that's going to protect your assets. If something like that happens, I mean there, it's, it's insane that it does happen.

Doug Ritter [00:38:24]:
But to defend yourself and then find yourself arrested and prosecuted because the DA doesn't like you or doesn't like knives or doesn't like self defense, you know that, that, that is unfair and it's annoying that you should pay 20 or 30 bucks a year so you have the insurance to save your assets, save your family from, from going broke. But we have, we have that solution for folks. It helps us a little. We get, we get a few bucks every time someone signs up and, and it's always nice to get money but, but we did it primarily because knife owners and, and all people who carry any kind of weapon in self defense, you know, need to protect themselves. It's unfortunate, but it's a whole lot better than the alternative and it doesn't cost much.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:45]:
After our last conversation a couple years back on this show, I signed My wife and myself up for a US Law shield. And yeah, I mean, it does bring peace of mind. I don't mean to sound like a commercial, but it really does bring peace of mind because I mean, heaven forbid we have to defend ourselves. I mean, but look at what happened with Daniel Penny in New York City on the subway, you know, saving a, a car, a subway car full of people using jiu jitsu from, from someone who was ready to, to go all the way and start, you know, he was obviously a mentally imbalanced person and Daniel Penny did, did a noble thing and was, was taken to task by New York City for it.

Doug Ritter [00:40:33]:
Yeah. And, and I have people who say, well, I don't live in New York City or I don't live in Chicago and that's great. But you know, there's also civil actions that U.S. law shield protects you against. You know, even if the prose prosecutor in the area decides it was righteous and they're not going to charge you, that doesn't mean that the, the perp's family isn't going to charge you or go after you. So I just, you know, if, if you are of the mindset that you're going to fight back in self defense, even if you're using some martial arts, I just think it's prudent to do so. And it does give peace of mind. You know, it's, it's the same sort of thing I talk about when I'm talking about survival stuff.

Doug Ritter [00:41:33]:
It's a positive state of mind because, you know, you're prepared and that may mean carrying the right survival gear or that may mean carrying insurance so that God forbid you have to protect, protect your life. You're not going to get room because of that.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:54]:
So you mentioned before we started rolling here that you will be attending Knife Rights, will be attending the Gun Rights Policy Conference. What's that and what's the knife rights involvement there?

Doug Ritter [00:42:05]:
So Gun Rights Policy Conference is a event that's held every year. It goes around the country. This year it's in Salt Lake city, the like 27th, 26th, 8th, 29th of September. We go because we are a second amendment organization. And while the vast majority of people think of the Second Amendment as being firearms, the Second Amendment doesn't include firearms. It says arms. We go there because we get a lot of, from these organizations, we work closely with them in a lot of instances. We sometimes do amicus briefs in some of their cases where a positive result would help us.

Doug Ritter [00:42:58]:
In our cases we bring something unique to the party because we aren't firearms. So we go, we go. And I have often spoken at Gun Rights Policy Conference because it's important to be there and remind people that the Second Amendment doesn't just say firearms. And we make great contact. We've met some of our most generous individual donors at this event. So we go every year. So we'll be in Salt Lake the end of this month and then back again for Blade West. So, but, but if anyone is in the Salt Lake area and would like to spend a day listening to some of the most knowledgeable people in the Second amendment community talk about the fight, it, it is a, a really fun couple days.

Doug Ritter [00:44:04]:
If, if you have any interest at all and, and it's absolutely 100 free. Just, just look up Gun Rights Policy Conference in, in your search engine and, and sign up and come and you know, stop by the table and say.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:21]:
Hi, you know, some of our listeners and viewers are in the UK and you know, obviously they don't have a second amendment and they have, you know, extremely restrictive knife laws. In your opinion, for what? From what you know about that situation, what do you think it would take for the UK to turn that ship?

Doug Ritter [00:44:48]:
So bear in mind that one of the reasons I started knife rights was that I had once worked for a British company. I had spent time in the uk. I spent time time in the UK doing some of my survival work, survival equipment work. And, and I saw what had happened there and I did not want my country to turn into the uk. I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell that the UK's attitude towards knives is ever going to turn around. I mean, hate to say it, but that's the least of their problems right now. I mean, you can't tweet something that somebody somewhere finds objectional lest you end up in, in jail. It, it, it's they, they have lost the concept of liberty, of free speech.

Doug Ritter [00:45:53]:
Self defense is often considered a violation. It's you, not the perp who is arrested and charged for defending your home. Even. We're not even talking about situations where someone has to defend themselves on the street. People are being raped, women are being raped, people are being beat up by gangs and, and illegal aliens in, in the country and, and they're the ones, if they fight back, who are arrested. It's in the news on a regular basis. Knife rates exist. So we don't end up like the uk.

Doug Ritter [00:46:41]:
Whereas I like to call it the formerly Great Britain.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:45]:
Yeah, formerly Great Britain is right. I love we have a Lot of friends there, especially through my wife who lived there for a while. And it's, it's sad for me to see, it's sad for me to see. You know, there was that recent case with the Irish comedian who was actually in your state and tweeted something and when he flew back to London he was snatched right at the airport for a mean tweet. And, and then there was that case in Scotland with that, with that girl who was that 14 year old girl who was defending her 12 year old sister and had a kitchen knife and a hatchet from someone you know, from some scumbag who was following her around and now she's the one who's in trouble for it.

Doug Ritter [00:47:30]:
Yeah. So Niprite is determined that the United States is not going to follow in Great Britain's footsteps. And luckily we, we have a second amendment and implementation may not be perfect and there's a lot of people who oppose it, but it's there. And, and we're going to fight for it because ultimately these are tools that most of us use every day. Work, play, sports, recreation, hiking, camping, whatever. But it is the second amendment that allows us to challenge jurisdictions who wish to treat them as illegal weapons when they are not and the use of them as being illegal when it is not.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:34]:
So how do Americans, how do people support knife rights? I know there are a lot of different ways, but kind of run down some of the ways people can support you.

Doug Ritter [00:48:46]:
Well, unfortunately what we do costs money and it costs a lot of money. Especially post Covid travel expenses have increased. I mean the fact of the matter is it costs money and the best way folks can support us is to make donations whether they donate to knife rights or they donate to knife rights Foundation. That is certainly the best way when we put out a call for action for people in a particular state where we are working legislatively. Please click on the links we give you, put in your name and address and speak up in favor of getting rid of these knife bands. Those, those really are the two primary ways we do it. I mean we just finished up our first, our, our annual, I should say Ultimate Steel Spectacular fundraiser. And, and, but the fact is people donate, do donate and we appreciate the donations year round.

Doug Ritter [00:50:04]:
We have the ability for you to make a modest donation on a monthly basis which a lot of members do join, become a member. Donate takes money. That's just bottom line, it takes money. It takes money to travel to events, to travel to legislatures. Unfortunately, when Todd or I have to go testify before a legislative committee, it inevitably we get maybe two days notice, maybe three, sometimes 24 hours. Those plane tickets are expensive. Prior to Covid, Maybe it was 700 bucks for a middle seat in economy. Today it's.

Doug Ritter [00:51:00]:
I, I can't remember the last time we saw a ticket for one of us go Wabi under a thousand bucks.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:09]:
Because it's last minute and.

Doug Ritter [00:51:11]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And just about whether it's rental cars or whatever, even Uber has gotten more expensive. I mean, everything's gotten more expensive. Yeah. And you know, if we want to continue this fight, we have to raise the money to do it. I, I spend the vast majority of my time working on fundraising. Unfortunately, I hate having to do it, but I can't do the rest that I enjoy, which is getting these bans repealed without doing that, without asking people to make an investment in the future. I like to say I'm the beggar in chief at knife rights, but the fact is that when you help us, you are indeed making an investment.

Doug Ritter [00:52:03]:
You're making an investment in a freer America.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:06]:
You are known for the RSK knives, originally made by Benchmade and now for the last, I don't know, seven or eight years, made by Hogue. Awesome. By the way, I love the automatic. My favorite. I've given away two RSK that I've had the full size with the ambidextrous fire lock, the able lock, and I also gave away the fixed blade, the Mark five, I think it is.

Doug Ritter [00:52:36]:
Little one.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:38]:
No, no, the larger one.

Doug Ritter [00:52:39]:
The Mark three. Mark three.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:41]:
I'm sorry to, to friends and, and I love this knife, but, but my favorite is actually the automatic. I love this thing. Magnacut. Does this help support? I mean, how does, how does this help support?

Doug Ritter [00:52:58]:
So, so the knives keep a roof over my head. Okay. Without sales of knives, without, without the Doug Ritter knife line, I could not afford to spend all the time I do on knife rights. I mean, it, it's just, it would be impossible. So while it's not a question of buy a knife in a percentage goes knife rights. It's buy a knife so Doug can continue to do knife rights. Right, Right. You know, the knives have been very well received.

Doug Ritter [00:53:34]:
I am very lucky to, to be working originally with Benchmade and now Hogue, who are building incredible knife for me. It is humbling to be sitting in a restaurant somewhere and have someone come up and thank me not just for knife rights, but they love the knife and they show me their, their knife that they've got. And, you know, more and more it's the auto. I Mean, the auto is cool with, with the, with the able lock, I was like, for, for me, as a keep it simple, survival sort of guy, the able lock worked great. And more and more people were like, why don't you do an auto? And I'm like, I don't know that I need an auto. But we got together with Hogue. You know, they make some awesome autos. Their mechanism is bulletproof.

Doug Ritter [00:54:49]:
Their springs are made by one of the best spring companies in the country who. People pay a lot of money to have their springs in their firearms. And so we came out with the auto, what, last year? Something like that. And it's just, you know, it's certainly fun, but it's also practical. And I would encourage people to go to Knife Works, which is my exclusive dealer, and take a look at the, at the knives you can get. For me, it's, I don't, I don't, I don't really get complaints from people. Mostly I get people saying, hey, I bought a mini and now I bought a full size and now I bought an auto and I really like it. It's habit forming.

Doug Ritter [00:55:48]:
I will warn people that. But it, when you support me by buying my knives, I really appreciate it because I can't do knife, I can't do knife rights without the dug rotor knives being sold. I mean, that's just the bottom line.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:07]:
I think it makes sense that you do that. You came out with an automatic because you've cleared the way in so many places for them to exist.

Doug Ritter [00:56:18]:
And that, and that's true. And that was one of the arguments to do it. It's like, okay, so you've gotten rid of all these bands. Why don't you have an auto in your life? And, and so we've, you know, we've got a basic auto. All, all the folding knives are, are made with Magnacut. We've got a basic auto with G10. And then we have the upgraded with carbon fiber and the, and the violet hardware.

Bob DeMarco [00:56:47]:
Show us, show us that. Because this one is the standard with E10, by the way. I love the contouring on the handle and the, and the radial pattern.

Doug Ritter [00:56:55]:
You can, you can see the carbon fiber in the violet hardware. Yeah, it, it, it really is. I think they're a very good value. Check them out@Knifeworks.com and support me so I can support knife rights.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:17]:
Well, absolutely. I can't say anymore. And, and before I let you go, you also, they also come in really cool colors. I love the purple, black and gray version. I think you held up an orange one, Is that right?

Doug Ritter [00:57:31]:
Yep. Okay.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:35]:
I think, you know, October is in the offing here and I think I might have to get one in orange, you know, just to be seasonal, you know.

Doug Ritter [00:57:44]:
Yeah, well, you know, it's also a good way not to use lose your knife because when you drop it on the forest floor, it stands out. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:53]:
Yeah, that's true. Well, Doug, thank you so much for coming back on the Knife Junkie podcast. It's always awesome to talk to you. It was, it was great seeing you at Blade show this year, as always. I think I missed you the year before because you're constantly buzzing around and.

Doug Ritter [00:58:08]:
I guess, pressing, begging for knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:11]:
Begging for knives for the ultimate steel. Steel. I'm sorry we didn't get you on here before the Ultimate Steel wrapped this year.

Doug Ritter [00:58:18]:
Oh, you got, you got me on at the beginning and I appreciate that. It's. I love the nice shows because at this point I know so many people there. I may only see them once or twice, maybe three times a year. And knife makers are so generous to knife rights, but it's the people. It's always the people. The people in this community, with rare exception, are just the most awesome folks. Agreed.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:52]:
Doug. Thanks again for coming on, sir. It's been a pleasure.

Doug Ritter [00:58:56]:
Appreciate it.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:58]:
There he goes ladies and gentlemen, Doug Ritter fighting for our knife rights every day. Don't forget to go to Knife Works and pick up an RSK Mark 1 or Mark 3 or Mark 5, whichever is your pleasure and help support them that way. But also go to Knife Rights and donate there. Don't forget about US Law shield or your self defense rights. And by all means download the legal blade app from Knife Rights because, well, it could save your. Save your bacon. So thanks again for joining us on the Knife Junkie podcast and well, for Jim working his magic behind the switcher. I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.

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