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A judge has proposed a nationwide programme to file down the points of kitchen knives as a solution to the country’s soaring knife crime epidemic.
Last week in his valedictory address, retiring Luton Crown Court Judge Nic Madge spoke of his concern that carrying a knife had become routine in some circles and called on the Government to ban the sale of large pointed kitchen knives.
[...] He said laws designed to reduce the availability of weapons to young would-be offenders had had “almost no effect”, since the vast majority had merely taken knives from a cutlery drawer.
[...] He asked: “But why we do need eight-inch or ten-inch kitchen knives with points?
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Knives are too Sharp and Filing Down their Points is Solution to Soaring Violent Crime, Judge Says
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Now KEN and BARBIE are PERMANENTLY ADDICTED to MIND-ALTERING DRUGS ...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Friday June 01 2018, @08:29AM (8 children)
It's short-sighted. It's not how people work. They'll just bring a screwdriver or chisel or something not restricted.
For those that don't know, if you buy any sharp knife or tool in a shop and you look under 16, you're likely to be challenged and asked to provide ID. That doesn't stop you bringing them from home, but it is a restriction on just such things.
However, the policeman will ask "Why are you just walking around at night with:"
- a knife, of any kind, except possibly a folding pocket knife that's not going to be something you can just whip out while also in possession of working clothes/tools having just come from your job.
- a baseball bat, unless you've also got a baseball, etc. and are on the way to/from the park
- a large pair of bolt-cutters.
- an axe
etc.
It's not a question of "you own a knife". Everyone owns a knife. It's a question of "why do you have that knive in this venue". Sharpened or not. My kitchen knives have never left my kitchen and/or possibly the garden. They have no need to.
Once you get into OBVIOUSLY fashioning something into a weapon (e.g. putting a point on a knife that didn't have one), it's already a problem. And even carrying a non-modified knife is a threatening action that indicates possible hostile intent anyway. You can kill someone with a spoon if you jam it in their throat or stomach hard enough.
To echo the gun lobby (at least in part), it's not the weapon, it's the intention. A gun owned with the right paperwork, only stored in a locked box and only opened on a rifle range and where ammo and gun are always separated is probably quite safe (incidentally... with the same caveats, it's legal to have such a gun in the UK! Just not assault rifles!). A gun in your back pocket, concealed or not, while doing the daily shop... that's incredibly worrying (and that's where UK/US gun laws differ vastly).
Knives are the same. What type/kind/size of knive does not matter very much in comparison to "why do you have that on you, here, now?". Kids carrying knives "to guard against the other people carrying knives" is the start of something that logically only ends in all-out war with any weapon of choice. That's why you can't let that stuff start or propagate. It doesn't matter if they're taking rolling pins out to "sort out that other kid"... it's that they apply the role of weapon to an item and think they need to carry one.
I assure you, a battery-powered diamond-cutting saw can make a damn mess of a human being. But people tend not to carry them in their back pocket "for protection". That's the difference.
Justify what's in your pockets and why. That someone can buy a knife with a point is a different matter.
(Please note: I am absolutely 100% pro-gun-control and have never in my entire life touched or fired a real gun, been subjected to threat of a gun - I've seen them on police at airports and that's IT - or had need to. Guns aren't the problem, as such. But rather than too-closely echo the gun lobby, let me clarify - there's no need for a gun in daily life, whatsoever. Even if you use them for sport, there's no need to have them visible, unlocked, accessible, brag about them or carry them anywhere other than the range/hunt. But there is a need for a kitchen knife. Just not walking down the street, unless you literally just bought them and they're still in the packaging. Venue matters more than the weapon, however there are some weapons - assault rifles - where even a single suitable venue is hard to even fathom)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01 2018, @09:39AM
Now, when you say assault rifle, what do you mean by that? I just want to see, if you know what an assault rifle is, since so many people get it wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01 2018, @09:41AM
Wrong. Handguns are illegal in the UK, assault rifles are illegal in both the UK and the US. AFAIK nothing in UK legislation would ban ownership of semi-automatic sporting rifles like the AR15 (with appropriate licence conditions).
What percentage of unlawful killings or firearms incidents in the US are because of citizens with a legal concealed carry permit? What percentage of firearms incidents in the UK involve legally obtained and licensed firearms?
Go one further; "why are you here now"? Does it matter if I'm walking down the road with a length of chain, piping or golf club? I'm unlikely to be brandishing these items as offensive weapons and there would always be a reason for my possessing the item. What reason would a school kid in London have for carrying these items and how could it be persecution when the only possible legal explanation is criminal intent?
We have two choices in the UK, we either stamp down on criminals using weapons or we legalise carrying weapons in self defence. But let's not ask the current political left what the answer to the problems they caused should be, criminals are just an oppressed and misunderstood class for them to ruthlessly exploit in their lust for power.
Assault (AKA: fully automatic) rifles (AKA: machine guns) are already illegal for citizens to own in the USA. You can put a bump stock on a semi-automatic and there's no practical difference but the legal distinction remains the trigger mechanism. I submit that you are not "100% pro-gun-control", you simply have not fully thought through the logic of your own arguments. I do not like guns but against a backdrop of stab-fests, acid attacks and terrorism (that the political class lack the will to prevent or deal with) it's time to greatly rethink UK gun legislation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01 2018, @11:29AM
How do you know this?
(Score: 2) by AssCork on Friday June 01 2018, @01:36PM
I would advise you not to test the courage of your convictions on certain streets in Los Angeles "owned" by certain organized groups of economically disenfranchised youths. They would jump at the chance to educate someone with no visible signs of self-protection on the fallacy their position begets.
To wit; A bull still charges at a vegan, caring not for his dinner plans.
Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01 2018, @04:18PM (1 child)
Ah yes, baseball, a game no-one plays locally (or much at all here in the UK - 0.035% of the population going by official guesstimates) yet the local JJB/Sportsdirect used to sell quite a number of the bats, funnily never the balls, just the bats...also, there's not a lot of cricket played up here in Scotland, it is played, but not by your typical Ned, again there's plenty of 'clicky-ba's' sold...the plausible deniability factor being quite a bit higher, and as we've a number of courses locally then there's always golf clubs...
When I have to visit the shops nearest my house after dark (shops featured prominently in 'The Knowhere Guide' for my good town), I usually have my 2D LED Torch on me, mind you, as the last attack at the shops involved someone being sodomised with a sword it might not do me much good..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01 2018, @07:13PM
FWIF, this [bbc.co.uk] happened just down the hill from the shops mentioned above [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday June 01 2018, @05:53PM
Well, yes, the gun is safe from harm, under those conditions. But, the gun is also useless. Why own something useless? If you want something useless, go get a pet.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 01 2018, @06:47PM
Well of course you are. I've noticed that the vast majority of people who wish to have their opinions carry weight in matters of gun control have no practical knowledge. I give their opinions as much consideration as I do when a garbage collector wants to make policy on brain surgery. When you fly in coach, do you try to tell the pilot how to manage the aircraft as well?
Over here, we have Constitutional and natural rights including those enshrined by the second amendment. Unfortunately, we also have idiots over here that believe that since they choose not to exercise their rights, nobody else should be able to either. There was a recent study that reported 20% of millennials wanted to use force to silence the rights of free speech among those they disagree with. If you want to start restricting rights, you might want to start with those people's suffrage rights.