General Chat

"Children carry knives because they are scared and increasing police powers to stop and search them will simply antagonise young people" - Children's Commissioner on BBC News this morning. Dont give a dam if people are antognised or scared, anyone of any age found carrying a knife should go to prison for a mandatory term 3-5 years should be enough for a first offence

I carry a knife all the time......a leatherman.

When I'm out shooting or fishing, I have a large one strapped to my belt.........

Carrying a knife is the symptom. What is the cause?

What a load of b......t.
PC again.

Another young life lost this morning others are injured in sidcup kent. something has to be done to stop this .


Angie x

i agree with you colin xx

The cause is from others brainwashing them into believing it is ok to carry one, as it makes them feel tuff when they produce it,
Eldrick, you would have seen this in many situation. yes?

Colin,i agree they need some example as deterent.
Eldric that quite common with farmers too,think probable cause is poss peer pressure & fear of attack.Its the willingness to use thats the probem.

Yep, I would say thats about right - peer pressure, 'fashion' (which is just peer pressure anyway), feeling of toughness, etc.

So it needs to become fashionable for knife carrying to be unacceptable.

But for so many of them, the only prospect they have in life is to become a drug dealer or gang member or criminal......

In my view, ever increasing draconian punishments will do nothing for the cause of deterrence. Whilst accepting that if they are behind bars, they aren't committing crime (which should surely be the whole idea of imprisonment....?) it will have no effect at all on the numbers of youngsters carrying knives.

Please dont think that I am not an advocate of draconian sentencing - bring it on! Longer the better!

But lets not pretend that it is a deterrent - it isnt. Not even capital punishment is a deterrent - they are punishments pure and simple.

Knives should be banned from anyone under 21 and only then allowed with a permit and a good reason to need the use of knives outdoors. Anyone carrying these weapons - and yes they are weapons should be given a custodial sentence regardless of age.

As Angie said earlier a young man's life was lost today from this 'youth culture' where weapons of any description are apart of their attire.

Lock them up.

Gill

So you think that bans are effective and work....?

Handguns banned in 1997 - need I say more?
Drugs banned in 1952...?
Fox hunting banned...
the list goes on and on and on......

Do you really think that making something illegal is a magic wand to prevent it being used in crime....?

Did you know that it is already a crime to be in possession of a knife or indeed any other offensive weapon in a public place....?With a power of arrest and a possible prison sentence...?

Eldrick...I don't think bans work, but then I don't know what will. One of the main reasons I only stuck the police service for a little over a couple of years was I felt I was banging my head up a brick wall, (That and the Royal Navy promising me travel outside of Stoke-on-Trent lol)

The prob with bans as i see it is ergo if record banned people will rush to buy it :(

Well, it's a case of tackling the cause not the symptom.

The symptom always goes in the too hard to deal with tray, because there are always masses of bearded sandal wearing experts fresh out of university who have been given grants by obscure inner city councils to study the causes of dropping chewing gum onto the pavement and why kids carry knives.

They don't listen to the people that know, because the solution is too difficult and its cheaper to give it to the experts to do more studies.

to make something a banned item or illegal,
is only another way of the gov't getting revenue in.

True there Eldric
Doc you right :)

Apart from your sarcasm Eldrick I feel you seem keen to allow Knives freely available - for what I wonder.

Yes I think they should be banned - as in the manufacture and retail of such, all these types of weapons should be held with the defense forces - there is no need for civilians to run around the country with knives about them.

That is my personal opinion which I have a right to state.

Gill

OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

lol

Well, heres a thing. A bit of science.

Tests have shown that a knife with a razor sharp blade 17" long and a serrated back, called a 'Rambo Commando', can be left alone on a table for several hundred years and it will not harm a single person or even a fly, for that matter. Or, heaven forbid, a squirrel!

Isnt that the maddest thing!

It would appeal to my sense of humour watching everyone trying to eat their steaks in a restaurant with chopsticks once knives were banned :-)

Afraid its the person whose hands its in that kills not the implement itself & we cant ban their mentality or lack there of, with respect :)

II was well peed off when they banned ALL from carrying a knife. Makes the picnic hard to eat.
As Eldrick has said, it's not the knife that's dangerous it's the pratts who think it's okay to attack with them.
A brick is a pretty impressive 'defensive' weapon, as for that matter is a compass when stabbed in the right place. Frozen chickens can kill too - they're not banned yet, but if enough people use them for the wrong reasons, you never know, they might be.
It's not the carrying of the knife that's dangerous, it's the reason for carrying the knife and the mentality of the carrier.
Personally I carry one to peel apples with.

maggie