Banning Internet Knife Sales

[Night Train]

Home deliveries of online knives to be banned under tough new restrictions.

 

"Online buyers will have to pick up a knife bought from a shop, where they will also be required to show proof of age."

 

This could backfire really badly and affect things like craft knives and even single edge razor blades. Its another stupidly thought out piece of useless legislation that doesn't make a damn bit of difference to criminals, yet causes no end of grief for law abiding people.

 

 

If Johnny Thug really wants to stab someone, he only needs to visit mums kitchen drawer where he will have access to all manner of sharp(ish) and pointy implements.

 

 

[Mark Saunders]

Home deliveries of online knives to be banned under tough new restrictions.

 

"Online buyers will have to pick up a knife bought from a shop, where they will also be required to show proof of age."

 

This could backfire really badly and affect things like craft knives and even single edge razor blades. Its another stupidly thought out piece of useless legislation that doesn't make a damn bit of difference to criminals, yet causes no end of grief for law abiding people.

 

The law of uniteded consequences coupled to a knee jerk reaction coupled to headline grabbing to indicate the problem is being addressed!

 

 

If Johnny Thug really wants to stab someone, he only needs to visit mums kitchen drawer where he will have access to all manner of sharp(ish) and pointy implements.

[Miss Prism]

I'd like Amber Rudd to prove she isn't a moron before passing any more legislation.

[Horsetan]

I'd like Amber Rudd to prove she isn't a moron before passing any more legislation.

Given the recent spate of acid attacks, we should all count ourselves lucky that sales of flux hasn't yet been banned.

[John M Upton]

Give it time...

 

It never makes a jot of difference as the usual morons supply of knives, acid or whatever is the trendy must have offensive weapon of the week are mostly stolen anyway.

[Vanders]

I'd like Amber Rudd to prove she isn't a moron before passing any more legislation.

After seeing her understudy for Theresa May in the debates, I think she's already failed that test.

[Guius]

It now appears that yobs are breaking into parked cars and taking the acid from the batteries. Police, apparently, have two youths in the cells and they will be charging them overnight

 

Guy

[Robert]

The Nanny state strikes again - and then they wonder why it is that nobody has any common sense anymore.

 

As for Amber Rudd...  Wait...  That's politics...  I won't say anymore.

[jjb1970]

We have a problem. We have to do something. This is something, and it can be done easily and cheaply. We'll do this.

 

Classic politics. Why do a lot of hard work to try and address why people want to stab eachother with knives and trying to make the law and order system effective when you can make a gesture instead.

[Oldddudders]

Given the recent spate of acid attacks, we should all count ourselves lucky that sales of flux hasn't yet been banned.

Oh, for flux's sake!

[ejstubbs]

I've bought two ex-display Global kitchen knives at an excellent price from an Amazon marketplace vendor who specialises in precisely that kind of thing. AFAIK they don't have a physical shop - certainly not local to me - so bang goes this useful source of discounted but good quality kitchen equipment.  Result: I'm p!ssed off, and the vendor could well go under - while the scallies will simply work around it, or all start using another offensive weapon 'du jour'.

 

This strikes me as a classic example of the "something must be done...this is something, therefore it must be done" argument that failing government ministers love to cling on to like a lifebelt in order to justify their generous pensions (funded by us, of course).  We, meanwhile, have to try to get on with our lives as best we can while wading through the ever-deepening fudge and mudge of ill-thought-out legislation like this (did someone say Dangerous Dogs Act 1991?)

 

What's really annoying is that if this gets into law, it's 99.9% certain that none of Rudd's replacements will ever have the guts to stand up and say "this is nonsense" and repeal it.  It'll just become 'the new normal'.

[caradoc]

Before going off on a rant, people should bear in mind that this is initially a consultation, not actually legislation. And is the proposal to restrict all knives, no matter how small, rather than the type used in knife crime (which is not usually the type we use for modelling) ? One thing is certain, something does have to be done about knife (and indeed acid) attacks.

Edited July 19, 2017 by caradoc

[Robert]

something does have to be done about knife (and indeed acid) attacks.

 

While that may be true, what jjb1970 said is also true.  How often have we seen this in recent years?  Rather than getting to the bottom of the problem, a knee jerk reaction is made on the premise of actually "doing something".  These knee jerk reactions then affect the law abiding majority.

[The Western Master]

In the grand scheme of things though, as stated elsewhere, knives are only part of the issue. As Night Train rightly said if someone wants to carry out a knife-related crime you can't stop them. What you can do is disillusion idiots who carry them for the 'look' about the true horrors of what happens when you get stabbed. There appears to be no coordinated prevention campaign for any of the major crime groups in this country. Anti-drug campaigns have been mis-managed since time in memorial, family planning campaigns have not prevented the UK from having one of the highest levels of teenage parenthood in Europe and driver safety campaigns don't appear to stop people being killed everyday by other people speeding or driving dangerously. And the reason is that it boils down to money. Like jjb1970 said, if it can be done cheaply the govt jumps on it otherwise they don't want to know.

[Arthur]

 

And before we start blaming the incumbent government (of whatever colour) for hastily driven through, poor, legislation remember that it is usually driven as much by the opposition (of whatever colour) demanding that 'this incompetent government do something' whilst offering nothing positive themselves. Any government expressing a desire to consult and take a measured view gets accused of inertia, not caring, having a vested interest, etc., etc., etc...

 

Collaboration?, That'll be the day.

[Mark Saunders]

It now appears that yobs are breaking into parked cars and taking the acid from the batteries.

 

Then Lead Acid batteries must be banned immediately and Starter Handles retro fitted, however this could lead to a major increase in the use of such as Offensive Weapons!

 

Mark Saunders

[Horsetan]

While that may be true, what jjb1970 said is also true.  How often have we seen this in recent years?  Rather than getting to the bottom of the problem, a knee jerk reaction is made on the premise of actually "doing something".  These knee jerk reactions then affect the law abiding majority.

 

Time was when the newspapers drove quite a lot of knee-jerk reaction, but I think antisocial media will be driving an awful lot more of it now.

 

.....Collaboration?, That'll be the day.

 

It worked for the French......sort of.

[Reorte]

While that may be true, what jjb1970 said is also true.  How often have we seen this in recent years?  Rather than getting to the bottom of the problem, a knee jerk reaction is made on the premise of actually "doing something".  These knee jerk reactions then affect the law abiding majority.

And too often if you respond to a knee-jerk reaction with "that's a bad idea" you just get "well what do you propose then?" (although that's not quite as bad as when people think that's a sensible reply to pointing out a problem in the first place).

[Reorte]

And before we start blaming the incumbent government (of whatever colour) for hastily driven through, poor, legislation remember that it is usually driven as much by the opposition (of whatever colour) demanding that 'this incompetent government do something' whilst offering nothing positive themselves. Any government expressing a desire to consult and take a measured view gets accused of inertia, not caring, having a vested interest, etc., etc., etc...

 

Collaboration?, That'll be the day.

Only read this after my post above. Calling on someone to get to work on fixing a problem, even if you don't have anything positive to offer, is fine, particularly for the Opposition. It's the government's job to find solutions - if others can help, then fine, but they shouldn't be left to sit on things because it's easier than facing the problem. The problem is that the motivation seems to be more to make the party in power look bad than to actually achieve anything useful.

[Arthur]

 

Calling on someone to get to work on fixing a problem, even if you don't have anything positive to offer, is fine, particularly for the Opposition. It's the government's job to find solutions - if others can help, then fine, but they shouldn't be left to sit on things because it's easier than facing the problem.

 

An opposition just carping from the sidelines and with nothing positive to offer is clearly not fit to govern. No, they cannot do anything but a supportive approach with sensible suggestions would do them credit. Yes, it is their job to ensure the standing government are not overcome with inertia but they should temper that with an understanding that 'act in haste, repent at leisure' is a good tenet for governance.

 

But, as you say

 

The problem is that the motivation seems to be more to make the party in power look bad than to actually achieve anything useful.

Which was the point I was making.

[jjb1970]

I think everybody agrees that something should be done to stop knife crime, acid attacks and crime in general. The problem is that given how complex the causes of crime are and the issues around detection and successful prosecution, any meaningful attempt to really stop crime needs more than a sound byte. The most sensible policy is to address the causes of crime so that people don't become criminals in the first place, but that opens up all sorts of difficult socio-economic problems (usually simplified to linking criminal behaviour with being poor, an attitude I find profoundly offensive to the disadvantaged) which raise profound questions about societal values, education, individual responsibility and economic opportunity. And as others have pointed out, I don't just blame the government as for my whole life all I can ever remember is opposition parties behaving like some sort of poor clown act to extract electoral advantage and criticise and blame the government for anything and everything rather than engage in meaningful debate.

[brianusa]

You think the UK has problems?  You should be here in the US where everyone knows guns are all over.  This is a nice quiet little town but the other day there was this guy, in a pharmacy open carrying, which means he had a gun in a holster, a la Western movie.  Mind you, he had all the trappings, tattoos, beard, cowboy hat and boots so he stood out from the normal customers. If he had a concealed weapons permit, he wouldn't have stood out so much.  And America wonders why it has so much gun violence!

 

Brian.