If it's not one thing, it's another...

[Crazed Rabbit]

Well, it seems that now some people in Britain want to ban knives!

Clickity-click!

To me, this is just silly. Are they going to go around consficating knives? Or do they expect the 'yobs' to go to their local police station and turn in the knives? Especially since knife carrying by most individuals seems to be illegal. If they can't enforce that law, how can they enforce this?

And after they ban the long kitchen knives, and somehow get them away from all the crooks in Britain, the crooks will just start using something else, which will be next on the ban list, until nearly every object in the country is required to be covered in soft foam, and people will need licenses to purchase real wrenches.

And yet, for some reason, in America, with all of our long, deadly, unregistered, unlicensed kitchen knives, we don't have this problem.

Crazed Rabbit

[Devastatin Dave]

The UK is becoming quite the socialist paradise. Nothing like the big Nanny Government controling every little aspect of you life.

[Duke Malcolm]

The justice minister up here is trying to get the Home Office to get airguns banned, as well...

[Adrian II]

What's gonna be banned next, illegal wars?

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Knives like that are already illegal in public places unless you can prove you need them-if you're a chef, for example. So I fail to see why a specific law banning their sale is needed, unless they're worried about people using them in their houses. They also have a clear utility.

This won't get off the ground anyway-last time I checked, A&E doctors didn't dictate government policy.

[PanzerJaeger]

Seems as though the NRA was right.

You take away guns and something will fill their place - criminals will be criminals and the only people who suffer are sportshooters and now apparently chefs.

[Goofball]

Seems pretty dumb to me.

What's next? Pointy sticks?

[Duke Malcolm]

If the police think that the thing can be used as a weapon, then they can charge you with carrying an offensive weapon, if it is in a publice place, so pointy sticks are already off the menu...

[Crazed Rabbit]

As I understand it, an 'offensive weapon' could be something designed to harm another person (like a sword) or something that the person using it intends to harm another person with. So a nobel peace prize could be called an offensive weapon!

Crazed Rabbit

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

As I understand it, an 'offensive weapon' could be something designed to harm another person (like a sword) or something that the person using it intends to harm another person with. So a nobel peace prize could be called an offensive weapon!

Crazed Rabbit

Yes. I think they'd actually have to catch you in the act of bashing someone's head in with it to make that particular charge stick though.

[Kanamori]

Here, you can walk around with a sword or shotgun if you want to.

[JAG]

Though I don't think this will necessarily solve the problem, I think the sentiment is right.

As for those who state 'banning guns and you get another weapon to replace it'. Look at the crime / death / injuries tables for our knife problem then do the same for your guns. If you still think out knife problem is the same as your gun problem you must be looking at the wrong tables.

[BDC]

It's because British people like being protected from their own stupidity. If it was practical to cover the entire country in padding, someone would have suggested it. Someone probably has anyway.

[Devastatin Dave]

It's because British people like being protected from their own stupidity. If it was practical to cover the entire country in padding, someone would have suggested it. Someone probably has anyway.

**watches JAG nail pillows to the local courthouse after he finished burning down a church**

[Crazed Rabbit]

Though I don't think this will necessarily solve the problem, I think the sentiment is right.

As for those who state 'banning guns and you get another weapon to replace it'. Look at the crime / death / injuries tables for our knife problem then do the same for your guns. If you still think out knife problem is the same as your gun problem you must be looking at the wrong tables.

Our 'gun problem'? I wasn't aware of any such thing.

The very fact that someone has proposed this means that another weapon will always replace the one in hand for a determined criminal-or even a bunch of yobs. Was there such a knife problem before guns were banned? And what do you think will happen if, somehow, the cops get all the sharp pointy kitchen knives out of those people's hands who are unfit to use them? They'll just use a different knife or weapon. Soon enough, they'll ban cricket bats and metal wrenches.

But this course of legislation is fundamentally misguided. It renders the law-abiding citizen defenseless to the packs of scum that roam the cities. Then, seeing as the criminals are still (Surprise!) acting criminally and using weapons, they ban more and more items which -surprise again!- the criminals ignore. And you end up with a knife problem created by gov't policies.

Oh, and could you answer the questions I posed in the first post, such as:

Especially since knife carrying by most individuals seems to be illegal. If they can't enforce that law, how can they enforce this?

Crazed Rabbit

[JAG]

CR, I am not sure you understand my country very well or in fact what I stated in my post.

[GoreBag]

They're not trying to ban knives as a whole, just the apparently needlessly long and sharp ones. It makes sense to a certain degree; swords, axes and things have special regulations and aren't allowed to be sharp if you keep them. Cane swords were recently legalised in Canada, but shuriken are still expressly banned.

What would be the proper solution, then, if banning unnecessarily long knives isn't?

[Xiahou]

Next- corks on the end of forks.

Though I don't think this will necessarily solve the problem, I think the sentiment is right.

As for those who state 'banning guns and you get another weapon to replace it'. Look at the crime / death / injuries tables for our knife problem then do the same for your guns. If you still think out knife problem is the same as your gun problem you must be looking at the wrong tables.

Still you think crime in the UK is so much less? Crime rates in the US have been falling for what? a decade now? Which way are they going in the UK? Maybe you're looking at the wrong tables.

Despite the gun-grabbing policies in the UK firearm crimes continue to rise.

[sharrukin]

They should also ban knives and shiv's in prison so that things don't become.... Oh yeah, they already did.

[bmolsson]

It's far more easy to shoot somebody than to stabb him or her.......

[Xiahou]

It's far more easy to shoot somebody than to stabb him or her.......

Have you ever shot or stabbed anyone?

[bmolsson]

Have you ever shot or stabbed anyone?

No. But I have been shot and stabbed (different occasions)......

[doc_bean]

Certain types of knives are already illegal here. Having a baseball bat in your car is also illegal. (maybe not if you can prove you're actually going to play baseball).

[Kaiser of Arabia]

at home i try to keep some sort of melee weapon near me at all times (yes a chair does count) in case we're robbed by people with knives at bats. Banning knives will just lead to them having to ban things like chairs (which my brother, who's 8 years old, has demonstrated can be used as a weapon), monitors (also can be used as a weapon; hey it hurt my hand once ok), plyers (long island frankfurter...), ice picks (Trotsky style!), plastic bags, baseball bats, cricket bats for you non-Americans, television, dogs, cats, fish, albatross, puffed rice, cds, piano, toilet paper, etc. Damn, sounds like the USSR on crack!

[Byzantine Prince]

I want to get a small washikazi in my bag in case someone wants to jump me in college. Taking that piece of metal out would scare god himself. And if they try any rough stuff I'll act accordingly, sending them to the hospital promto.

cds

I've seen that in a movie(Oldboy), where this guy breaks a CD in half and stabs this fat guy in neck like 8 times. It was my favorite scene int he whole movie.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Here, you can walk around with a sword or shotgun if you want to.

A friend of mine saw a guy carrying a loaded crossbow down main street, across from village hall. God I love Canada.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

A friend of mine saw a guy carrying a loaded crossbow down main street, across from village hall. God I love Canada.

In the city of York in England it is legal to kill a scotsman as long as you do it after 6pm and with a crossbow.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I thought it was a longbow, and not on Sundays. And in Chester you can only shoot a Welsh person with a bow and arrow inside the city walls and after midnight.

[DemonArchangel]

long island frankfurter?

And I love Emerika, I love guns, I will bust a cap into any conservative's ass if he/she/it tries impose "morals" on me. I will also shoot intruders, robbers, burglars, and my neighbor's annoying dogs.

Hell, i carry at least a knife or a roll of coins on me at all times.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

What are you gonna do with a roll of coins? Pay someone to jump off a bridge?