Letter to the editor: Sensible knife laws

August 21, 2014

OPINION By GARY KIRKLAND

The senseless tragedy a few weeks ago in the Santa Barbra area clearly demonstrates we need some sensible knife laws.

Our legislators and the governor should require manufacturers to sell knives with handle locks. People should have to register their knives with the local police. No one under 18 years of age should be able to buy a knife, and parents should be responsible if a child obtains an unlocked knife and uses it to harm another. People who want to buy a knife should have to take a knife safety class and the law should require a 15-day waiting period after purchase before delivery. Felons and the mentally insane should not have the right to have knives. Law enforcement officials should have the right to confiscate knives from mentally unstable people if their family or friends report the unstable people to the officials. The government needs to encourage rat finks.

I do not understand why U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstine or Barbara Boxer have not introduced legislation in Congress that would ban assault knives. It is obvious our elected leaders are in the pockets of the National Knife Association (NKA). Relatives of the victims need to go to Washington and campaign for new laws. If just one person dies because we do not have sensible knife laws that is one person too many. People: contact your elected representatives and demand that they keep knives out of the hands of criminals, the insane, and children by enacting sensible knife laws.