BLOODY HELL: British Church Calls for More Knife Control
Jose Nino
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The UK has become notorious for its knife violence epidemic in recent years.
Given its island status and lack of a right to bear arms, the country has witnessed an uptick in knife crimes. When guns are banned, criminals will just switch to other weapons.
Additionally, UK citizens have no effective means of defending themselves.
Instead of advocating for a citizen empowerment solution such as expanding gun rights, public figures in the UK believe the answer is knife control.
Church leaders in the Diocese of Rochester are now calling for tougher regulations on the sale of domestic knives.
They wrote a letter urging for the ban on pointed kitchen knives sales. The letter also received signatures from top crime experts, Members of Parliament, and community leaders.
This letter came after a conference titled The Point in Chatham brought the issue of knife violence up, with statistics showing that there has been an 80 percent increase in knife-related crime in the UK since 2014.
The signers pressured the UK government to “take urgent measures to promote the sale of safe kitchen knife designs and restrict those designs which have been used in so many acts of violence.”
The letter argues that domestic knives are no longer necessary.
“Historically we needed a point on the end of our knife to pick up food because forks weren’t invented. Now we only need the point to open packets when we can’t be bothered to find the scissors,” the letter declared.
It continues: “A five-year study in Edinburgh found that of the sharp instruments used in homicides, 94 per cent were kitchen knives. Research demonstrates kitchen knives are used in a large percentage of homicides due to their availability and lethal nature.”
In the letter, the signers stated that reducing knife availability will in effect reduce crime.
Criminologists have demonstrated that reducing availability in turn reduces crime. The UK has worked for the public good by restricting handguns, paracetamol, smoking in public and plastic bags – now it is time to say ‘no bloody point’.
The letter and conference were part of a month-long knife crime awareness campaign in September, which received backing from the Diocese of Rochester, the Church of England in Medway, and the London Boroughs of Bromley and Bexley.
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