It's Finally Happened, They're Gonna Try to Ban Knives

digerati · May 29, 2005, 08:43 PM

What we've been saying all along, that people will kill with whatever they can no matter what you ban. But looks like the UK doesn't agree with us, it's time to ban long kitchen knives!

Quote:

Doctors' kitchen knives ban call

Doctors say knives are too pointed
A&E doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing.
A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.

They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.

The research is published in the British Medical Journal.

The researchers said there was no reason for long pointed knives to be publicly available at all.

They consulted 10 top chefs from around the UK, and found such knives have little practical value in the kitchen.

None of the chefs felt such knives were essential, since the point of a short blade was just as useful when a sharp end was needed.

The researchers said a short pointed knife may cause a substantial superficial wound if used in an assault - but is unlikely to penetrate to inner organs.

Kitchen knives can inflict appalling wounds

In contrast, a pointed long blade pierces the body like "cutting into a ripe melon".

The use of knives is particularly worrying amongst adolescents, say the researchers, reporting that 24% of 16-year-olds have been shown to carry weapons, primarily knives.

The study found links between easy access to domestic knives and violent assault are long established.

French laws in the 17th century decreed that the tips of table and street knives be ground smooth.

A century later, forks and blunt-ended table knives were introduced in the UK in an effort to reduce injuries during arguments in public eating houses.

The researchers say legislation to ban the sale of long pointed knives would be a key step in the fight against violent crime.

"The Home Office is looking for ways to reduce knife crime.

"We suggest that banning the sale of long pointed knives is a sensible and practical measure that would have this effect."

Government response

Home Office spokesperson said there were already extensive restrictions in place to control the sale and possession of knives.

"The law already prohibits the possession of offensive weapons in a public place, and the possession of knives in public without good reason or lawful authority, with the exception of a folding pocket knife with a blade not exceeding three inches.

"Offensive weapons are defined as any weapon designed or adapted to cause injury, or intended by the person possessing them to do so.

"An individual has to demonstrate that he had good reason to possess a knife, for example for fishing, other sporting purposes or as part of his profession (e.g. a chef) in a public place.

"The manufacture, sale and importation of 17 bladed, pointed and other offensive weapons have been banned, in addition to flick knives and gravity knives."

A spokesperson for the Association of Chief Police Officers said: "ACPO supports any move to reduce the number of knife related incidents, however, it is important to consider the practicalities of enforcing such changes."

Next to be banned, letter openers

Source: BBC

pr0digal jenius · May 29, 2005, 10:07 PM

*looks at his 2.5" pocket knife......then over at the cooking set in his kitchen with the 8" cleaver*

....hell no

TJ- · May 29, 2005, 10:20 PM

if someone wants to kill you, they will. Banning a kitchen knife will just annoy chefs, not murderers... How stupid...!
how bout a fork in the eye?

radTube · May 30, 2005, 01:39 AM

Yeah, this is just plain stupid. But it's not like it's anything more than 'research' by one team of doctors, right? Far from law.

Dark Lord · May 30, 2005, 01:45 AM

if some ones going to kill some one, ANY item can be used as an effective weapon.
hell, this 14 guage speaker cable here hooked up to my system can make for some effective choke wire.

Tipstaff · May 30, 2005, 02:30 AM

After reading this, I am still a firm believer that Doctors should not be allowed to perscribe their own medications unless they are ones to relieve constipation... which these doctors obviously have an abundace of. Either that or something is shoved way up there...

" The researchers said a short pointed knife may cause a substantial superficial wound if used in an assault - but is unlikely to penetrate to inner organs."

Um.. these are Doctors? Did these idiots fail basic anatomy? Almost every major organ is about 2-6 inches from the surface of the body. I can still stab somone with a pearing knife (which is usually 4" long, and has a sharp pointed tip), and hit a number of major organs, including the lunges, liver, kidneys, heart, stomach, throat, ball sack. Stupid mofos. Hello? Did we forget the fact that most knife attacks are those by switchblades, or some type of concealed knife? What's also the leading cause of knife deaths? MULTIPLE STAB WOUNDS! MOFOS!

<sigh>

Here's one for you:

Proper table etiquette requires 9 different eating utensils to be placed on the table, plus 2 plates, and a napkin. Those utensils are: 4 forks, 2 knives, 3 spoons (I won't get into what each one does). Now, remove all the pointed ones (which I can use to stab someone). Anyone want to bet how much I can hurt somone with a spoon? Forget poking somones eye out.. I'll just scoop it out... hell.. I'd probably get some perverse pleasure out of spooning somone to death. Come to think of it.. there are a few 'Doctors' at the top of my list to spoon.

This is how ridiculous this story is btw.

-Tip

digerati · May 30, 2005, 04:04 AM

Just making sure you guys don't miss this.

Quote:

The use of knives is particularly worrying amongst adolescents, say the researchers, reporting that 24% of 16-year-olds have been shown to carry weapons, primarily knives.

These are UK statistics, so much for our "weapon obsessed American youth"

pr0digal jenius · May 30, 2005, 10:05 AM

a plastic knife, some seran-wrap, and a microwave and a little bit of physics will make a blade sharper then what they are banning(that's actually what they had on the 9-11 attacks)

The_Neon_Cowboy · May 30, 2005, 11:17 AM

THats nuts, they are that long for many resons, what next? ban trees becouse people
could sharpen a stick and stab some one with it .. LOL

the only difference is intsed of stabing them once they will stab them multiple times.
The end resulst wil be the same it will just be far more painfull for the victom...

to be effective they need to ban all knifes i'd love to see that. I laugh so hard

**Asmoday** · May 30, 2005, 11:29 AM

Jeez...

davidnsibs · May 30, 2005, 11:29 AM

what you guys are talking about it pre-meditated murder i.e. someone carrying a knife and planning to use it.

getting shops to sell cooking knifes with blunt ends will help to stop those attacks which happen in the spur of the moment, and a sharp knife in the kitchen is something lethal and within grasp.

if long and sharp knifes wern't in everybodies kitchens then these irrational and unplanned attacks may not happen since the person wouldnt find anything obvious to use, calm down and perhaps then someones life would be saved.

im rarely in favour of governments controlling what we do and buy, but you have to consider both sides of the argument.

digerati · May 30, 2005, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidnsibs

what you guys are talking about it pre-meditated murder i.e. someone carrying a knife and planning to use it.

getting shops to sell cooking knifes with blunt ends will help to stop those attacks which happen in the spur of the moment, and a sharp knife in the kitchen is something lethal and within grasp.

if long and sharp knifes wern't in everybodies kitchens then these irrational and unplanned attacks may not happen since the person wouldnt find anything obvious to use, calm down and perhaps then someones life would be saved.

im rarely in favour of governments controlling what we do and buy, but you have to consider both sides of the argument.

I see their arguement I really do, but this is one of those cases where they won't know when to stop.

raid517 · May 31, 2005, 05:58 PM

Pah, I'm sure ^_^ does this just to try to annoy me. This is just a couple of kooky doctors spouting nonsense. Think things through logically before you post this stuff why don't you? How the hell are people going to ban knives? What, are they going to try to stop people producing everything with sharp edges? So I guess that means we will have to ban tinned food, or keys, or doors with unusually sharp edges? Heck why don't we just ban everything that might be potentially dangerous and build our houses and our cars and our stores and our restaurants and everything in them out of soft floppy bean bags, and force people to eat with string instead of forks, since anything with a straight edge could be definines as 'sharp' under different circumstances too. Clearly you are just being stupid - or are deliberately talking crazy.

The official government response - which you quite unskillfully ignored was polite but definitive - and that is that there are already all the restrictions on knives in the UK that there are ever likely to be. These simply amount to it being illegal to sell knives (or other sharp impliments) to young people under the age of 16. Now what in the hell is so wrong with that? Or do you think it is acceptable for a 14 year old boy to be able to walk into any store and walk out again with a 12 inch razor sharp Rambo knife in his hand? Do you honestly and genuinely believe that anyone who claims to be a responsible shop keeper should be allowed to do that? I mean what is he going to use it for? To pick out the food that sometimes gets stuck between his teeth?

And contrary to your mock moral indignation, we don't have marauding gangs of youths running around UK cities and streets stabbing the life out of anything that moves. Stabbings (and fatalities from stabbings) in the UK are still relatively rare. I live in a vast city in the UK and I think in total there may have been 5 deaths from stabbings over the past 18 months - and most of them were domestic. (As in husband and wife - or random slayings by family members) And that is a phenomenon that happens everywhere. (and more than this it has always happend).

The reason people object to guns is because first unlike knives, they can't possibly have any other purpose other than to kill. I mean, it's not exactly like you need a semi automatic AK47 to turn off all the light switches in your home, now is it? But you sure do need a sharp knife if you want to slice up some nice warm home baked bread. An AK47's only possible purpose is to inflict mutiple deaths and severe injury.

Personally I don't really care about guns in the US. If you guys want to regularly blow each other away, then there is not much I have to say about it. I don't think there is ever going to be a way to remove all of the guns from American culture - and if anyone seriously tried there would probably be a civil war. The NRA and gun culture in general is simply too powerful.

However I do think sensible restrictions should be in place and that there is no call for anyone to have an automatic or semi automatic weapon - or for that matter even a handgun. (I mean what other purpose does a hand gun serve? It's not as if its very useful for hunting, is it?).

If people want to hunt then fine. I don't personally like hunting as I don't think it's very fair sport. (I wonder how much fun hunters would think it was if half the wild life population could pack and Uzi and shoot back at them?). However it's each to their own I suppose. In order to live together, sometimes we all have to put up with things we don't like. But there should certainly be proper restrictions put on weapons who's only possible purpose is to kill - and more specifically to kill other people.

Not so easy to hide behind the argument that you only own a bazuka to hunt rabbits with then is it?

GJ

Lelisevis · May 31, 2005, 06:07 PM

'Not so easy to hide behind the argument that you own a bazuka for hunting rabbits then is it?'

Someone who obviously hasn't seen Monty Python and the Holy grail: 'Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!'

~~trodas~~ · Jun 6, 2005, 01:03 PM

What about ban a life then?

It is far more easier when life is baned, that baning all the things it should possibly end it, is not this true?