British Law?

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Originally Posted by Bruno

It was told by UK friends, and I read about the problem in the newspaper I was reading at one of my friends' home at breakfast, at the time. That is not traceable of course, so I turned to the internet.

A simpele query in google turns up this:
Revealed: 100 stabbings in London this year | News
100 stabbings by 14th of may, in 2008. That's about 1 per day, in 1 city (arguably a large one).
I don't know if you consider that many or not, but I'd call that quite a lot.

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Yes it is quite a lot, one is too many. Finding the exact number of stabbings in London for 2010/2011 is proving a bit difficult because the statistics published are for knife crime in general. I will persevere, there is some good news however, you will no doubt be pleased to hear that we are in line to have another law.

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill 2010-11, one of the key areas creates a new offence of threatening with an offensive weapon or an article with a blade or point thereby creating an immediate risk of serious physical harm. A minimum sentence of 6 months’ imprisonment would normally be given to persons over 18 found guilty of this offence.

In reply to the sarcasm (the likes)

it has been asked elsewhere if a cutthroat is sec139 complient, the lawyers and policemen on the site all said no. this is in response to the OP.

no, you cannot carry a 3" fixed blade just on the off chance you come across a bed of mussles, if you had a basket of them, or were going to the seaside on a mussel trip, then the answer is yes.

i chose a cooks knife as a reasonable thing to buy for the average person. i could have equally said 3foot machette, the fact is that purchasing a knife and taking it home is a good enough reason to have it on you.

in addition to this, wrt the OP, there is no UK law per se, as Scotland and Northern Island have slight variations of their own. all that i have been discussing is in relation to the law in Wales and England.

sc

Well hopefully Wales will be free of English tyranny one day...CYMRU AM BYTH...:p...


Mick

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Originally Posted by MickR

Well hopefully Wales will be free of English tyranny one day...CYMRU AM BYTH...:p...


Mick

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Wales can be free tomorrow, the same goes for anyone else, the only proviso is that a thirty foot wall is erected on the border and they keep their side of it, I can happily live without Daffodils and leeks:p

Sarcasm? Perish the thought.

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Originally Posted by Mvcrash

Folks are very polite in Texas yet they have an extremely high murder rate...

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Not true. Got a source for that statement?

Go to the Texas Department of Public Safety website and look up the crime statistics. Violent crime of every kind--murder, rape, assault--has dropped steadily EVERY SINGLE YEAR since the Concealed Handgun License (CHL) program went into effect in 1996.

Even a liberal could draw the obvious conclusion--fear of running into a legally armed citizen has put the fear of God into many would-be thugs in Texas.

Want to know what sparked the CHL bill in 1996? Google "Luby's Cafeteria massacre."

In the early 90's, a thug rammed his truck into a Luby's Cafeteria near Killeen, Texas and started shooting people. A woman was having lunch with her parents, and her father tried to defend the family with a butter knife. Didn't work. Both of her parents were shot and killed.

The real shame was that the woman HAD a perfectly good handgun she could have used to take out the thug and save a lot of lives...but under the law as it was back then, she couldn't carry it on her person, she had to keep it locked up in the trunk of her car.

She later became a Texas legislator and was instrumental in getting the CHL bill passed.

So lay off the Texas-hating. Or are you just jealous that we still have a little thing called a "good job market" and "good economy" down here?

I can see the argument for needing to defend oneself. It's obviously a very dangerous place to be.
The question that needs to be asked, what sort of place has Texas become if people have to routinely carry a firearm in order to feel and stay safe? I'd take a less affluent lifestyle over the need to wear a gun when I go out to lunch.

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Originally Posted by welshwizard

I'd take a less affluent lifestyle over the need to wear a gun when I go out to lunch.

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Don't go to London for lunch then. I heard that there are lots of stabbings there.

You can, and many do, carry a knife as a tool. The idea of carrying a knife for self defense is naive. At least here. I do not know a soul who would tell something like that without being considered as lunatic and dangerous. Someone who shouldn't have weapons of any kind.
Now there's a difference between hand guns and knives. You can use gun for one purpose only and that is not a tool. If you live in place where you really need to arm yourself to feel safe, that is all ok, and not a question of this topic. Well maybe you could use gun as a hammer, except for those made of plastic, but you get a point.

I think there are always going to be bad people out there regardless of the legislation of country XYZ. I think people have a right to be able to protect themselves. And I know that bad people will always be able to get a hold of the scariest weapons to do what they want to other people. So short of crushing every knife, gun, axe, pickhandle, rubber hose filled with bb's, icepick etc, etc and making every second citizen a police officer, I think people should be able to carry a weapon on them for self-defense.


Mick