Just curious how this will effect some of the people on this site and if you agree with this. http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=198692006
The last paragraph is scary, I would be interested in how everyone feels about this. I think its bad and another link in the chain.
Here are a couple more links…
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=579102005
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2006/090206bansknives.htm
Not really sure how to vote on this one. The last paragraph is just silly. Now I understand there is a problem but no reason to go to jail for a pocket knife. Of course we dont have this problem in the US so much coz we get to play with guns.
It’s far easier to blame an object and ban it that is to actually deal with real criminals.
Scum.
Good point! However this is the same line of thinking as “Guns dont kill people…people kill people.” But hey the gun helps.
You can already be prosecuted for carrying a knife over 3 inches in Scotland as far as I’m aware!
It is however aimed at a certain group in the population. The ones that carry a knife for the express purpose of harming someone else. Usually teenage gangs of youths, often called Neds in Scotland. They revell in what is known as Chibbing people (A Chib being a piercing weapon as opposed to a slashing one) with knives or screw-drivers etc.
In some parts of Glasgow it is especially rife. So it isnt aimed at the average citizen and I have absolutely no idea why any decent citizen would go out drinking on a Saturday night armed with a Kitchen Knife either.
Has anyone?
This is another useless law that is trying to enforce the unenforceable. It is illegal to carry a knife over 3 inches in public if you do not have a valid reason. So a cook going to work carrying there tools of trade do not have a problem. The same cook out at night on the piss with a cook’s knife is a different matter. A soldier carrying a bayonet in uniform is OK but in civvies down the pub is different. The law is already there, if you are stopped and searched and have a screwdriver in your back pocket and your not an electrician it is classed as an offensive weapon.
They was a newspaper report about some stuffed shirt complaining that he was arrested for carrying a leathernam type tool by a police officer who was showing off to trainee community support officers (a sort of new type of police without the power or pay). He spent some time in the nick and was very upset at the police for arresting him, a descent upstanding citizen, who shouted abuse at the police when his solicitor eventually got him released.
He also mentioned in passing that on the passenger seat was a ASP baton, which is an offensive weapon and probably the reason he was arrested in the first pass not the knife.
Its like the stupid gun laws, it will only effect the people who abide by the law.
I agree with the above, my previous post may read as if I support a ban on Knives, no I support a Ban on Neds though.
The problem with creating a law specifically to “target” one group is that far more people get caught in the crossfire.
The problem with these kinds of laws is that they only affect the law-abiding. A lot of these laws contain the phrase “… without lawful authority or reasonable excuse”. This effectively reverses the burden of proof, with you having to prove your reasonable excuse (entirely subjective) as opposed to the arresting policeman having to prove intent (probably equally subjective, but morally I feel that the state should be proving that you had intent rather than you proving to the state that you didn’t).
Does this mean you can’t have kitchen knives in your kitchen?
Yes, if you intend to attack someone with them. No if you are attacking the Sunday joint.
I somehow dont think that Kitchen knives will be banned, unless in the above case.
Then any kiddie could just go in the kitchen take a knive and stab someone. So this law would not be of much help.
I couldnt have said it any better, I agree 100%
I hope your right, check out what this says about kitchen knives.
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=579102005
The thing is there will always be A-holes that will hurt people with what ever the can get there hands on, whats next pointy sticks, screwdrivers, plastic bags, scissors and ball point pens?
Ball point pens, wonderful defence tools.
(Make sure yours has a one-piece steel tube.)
I hope your right, check out what this says about kitchen knives.
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=579102005
The thing is there will always be A-holes that will hurt people with what ever the can get there hands on, whats next pointy sticks, screwdrivers, plastic bags, scissors and ball point pens?[/quote]
Like I said, I dont think Kitchen knives will be banned. Its just something the Press likes to pick up on.
It has been said before here, if your using a Kitchen knife in your kitchen then its highly unlikely that the SAS are going to burst through your roof. If your walking in the Town at 2 am and carrying a kitchen knife then I’d like to now why? Mind you the same would go with Scissors or a Screwdriver, why would anyone need them on a night out.
The point I’m making is that you have to take these potential weapons in context, its when they are carried for the specific purpose of harm that they become dangerous.
They literally are signing away your rights bit by bit and are doing so. Making yourselves more helpless won’t accomplish anything except making the bad guy’s stronger. It’s strange that a certain segment of society continues to insist on bans like this as a response to crime. Do you think the bad guys will turn in there weapons? Do you really think law abiding people go around stabbing people? The way to handle crime is to punish criminals HARD. Its your rights they are taking away.
You have pointed out the problem, you should not have any rights, you should have responsibilities.
This fixation with rights is the problem not the solution.
The problem isn’t so much with Rights, as with the fact that those Rights also carry Responsibilities, which far too many(especially the young), feel they can discard at will, whilst retaining the bit they want.
The bleeding heart/treehugger/social worker types are also all too quick to promote Rights & leaving out the other half of the equation.
PS Ban pointy sticks now - in fact all sticks should be banned, in case they are modified to make them pointy… :roll: :?
My point is (hate to bang on about it) that anything can and will be used as a weapon in certain circumstances. Its the concious effort to carry a tool with the intent of causing harm thats wrong, not the tool.