A series of articles, variants on a theme.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/04/09/london-mayor-knife-control/500328002/
Which is followed by....
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/840634/Ban-kitchen-knives-pointed-doctor-deadly-knife-crime
And finally....
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...ng-solution-soaring-violent-crime-judge-says/
It gets better:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/04/09/london-mayor-knife-control/500328002/
USA Today said:After murder rate passes NYC, London Mayor Sadiq Khan calls for sharper knife control
London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced a crackdown on knives Sunday in response to the rising levels of violence in London, which recently surpassed New York City's homicide rate for the first time.
"No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife," Khan tweeted. "Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law."
There have been more than 50 homicides in London so far in 2018, and much of the violence is tied to gangs.
Guns are strictly regulated in the United Kingdom and the rising homicide rate in London is directly attributable to a rise in knife-related crimes, with stabbings claiming at least 31 lives to date in 2018. By contrast, New York — which has a population roughly the same size as London — has seen a steady decline in violent crime.
There were 15 murders committed in London in February and another 22 in March, while New York saw 14 murders in February and 21 in March, according to murder rate statistics provided to USA TODAY by London's Metropolitan Police and the New York Police Department.
In Britain, it is currently illegal to carry a knife longer than three inches in public "without good reason" and illegally carrying a knife can be punished with up to four years in prison and an "unlimited fine."
Self-defense is not listed among the examples of "good reasons to carry a knife." The courts determine if someone's reason to carry a knife is valid. Condoned examples of knife-carrying include if it is necessary for a person's work or if it is being brought to a gallery for exhibition.
Which is followed by....
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/840634/Ban-kitchen-knives-pointed-doctor-deadly-knife-crime
The Express said:Dr. John Crichton, the new chairman of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, wants the sale of pointed kitchen knives to be banned to help reduce the number of fatal stabbings.
He first suggested the move three years ago, but his proposal did not win enough support from policy-makers. Since then dozens of people, including schoolchildren, have lost their lives as a result of attacks involving bladed instruments.
Dr. Crichton, who took on the role of chairman in June this year, is championing a switch to so-called ‘R’-bladed knives, which have rounded points and are far less effective as weapons…. ‘We are very quick to be critical of our American cousins and the prevalence of guns but this is an issue which doesn’t even occur to us.
And finally....
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...ng-solution-soaring-violent-crime-judge-says/
The Telegraph said:Knives are too sharp and filing them down is solution to soaring violent crime, judge says
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.
Latest figures show stabbing deaths among teenagers and young adults have reached the highest level for eight years, and knife crime overall rose 22 per cent in 2017.
In the past two months, he said, there have been 77 knife-related incidents in Bedfordshire, including three killings.
Judge Madge told the assembled judges, barristers and court staff: “These offences often seem motiveless - one boy was stabbed because he had an argument a couple of years before at his junior school.”
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 said: “A few of the blades carried by youths are so called ‘Rambo knives’ or samurai swords. They though are a very small minority.
"The reason why these measures have little effect is that the vast majority of knives carried by youths are ordinary kitchen knives. Every kitchen contains lethal knives which are potential murder weapons.
It gets better:
So, he said: “I would urge all those with any role in relation to knives - manufacturers, shops, the police, local authorities, the government - to consider preventing the sale of long pointed knives, except in rare, defined, circumstances, and replacing such knives with rounded ends.
"It might even be that the police could organise a programme whereby the owners of kitchen knives, which have been properly and lawfully bought for culinary purposes, could be taken somewhere to be modified, with the points being ground down into rounded ends," he said.
