A bill promoted by AKTI was signed into law Feb. 9, 2007, by Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe. The law repeals a previous statute that made it a weapons offense to carry a knife with a blade 3 inches or longer.

Reply from AKTI to a July 25, 2006, article in the Wall Street Journal titled “How New, Deadly Pocketknives Became a $1 Billion Business.” The American Knife & Tool’s response focuses on the importance of pocketknives as tools used daily by millions of Americans.

Legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to hinder frivolous lawsuits against law-abiding businesses that seek to blame them for the criminal misuse of legally sold firearms. AKTI supported a similar bill proposed the previous year.

More than 86 percent of AKTI individual members believe that AKTI should take the official position that “there are no good knives; there are no bad knives,” based on a Winter 2005 poll the organization conducted among its members.

A letter-writing campaign promoted by AKTI in response to the introduction of H 5797 by Representatives Smith and Hood in the Michigan legislature effectively discouraged the bill from being considered and it died in committee.