Knife Control in the U.K.

Firearms aren’t common in the U.K., so they are experiencing an epidemic of “knife crime.” Also acid attacks. Now proposals for knife control are being floated:

A judge wants the points of kitchen knives to be rounded and blunted to reduce the number of young men dying from stab wounds in street attacks.

Judge Nic Madge said ordinary kitchen knives were causing a “soaring loss of life”, rather than more heavily regulated large-bladed weapons.
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Knife crime rose by 22% in England and Wales in 2017, according to the Office for National Statistics.

“Kitchens contain lethal knives which are potential murder weapons and only butchers and fishmongers need eight or 10 inch kitchen knives with points,” the judge said.

Much like discussion in the U.S. about whether people “need” guns.

He wants manufacturers to produce knives with rounded points for domestic use and those with points to be sold under strict rules.

I take it the “strict rules” would be a ban on sales to anyone other than butchers and fishmongers. Or maybe buyers would have to register their sharp-pointed knives, for whatever good that might do. It all makes sense, I guess, if you think the cause of “knife crime” is knives.

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