You can’t make this stuff up.

[VoiceofReason]

OK folks I decided to post this. I am looking forward to seeing the comments.

As most of us know Brittan arguably has the strictest gun legislation in the world. This has not solved the crime problem so now some want “knife control”. There are even efforts to prevent beer glasses from being used as weapons. The following are quotes taken from two issues of the BBC News and a link to a site that talks about the beer glass issue.

It seems the British government is determined to keep going the wrong way.

BBC News 26 May, 2005
Headline: “Doctors' kitchen knives ban call”
“A&E doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing.”

“A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.”

“The researchers said there was no reason for long pointed knives to be publicly available at all.”

“They consulted 10 top chefs from around the UK, and found such knives have little practical value in the kitchen.”

“The use of knives is particularly worrying amongst adolescents, say the researchers, reporting that 24% of 16-year-olds have been shown to carry weapons, primarily knives.”

BBC News Last Updated: Monday, 14 January 2008, 10:27 GMT
Headline: “PM promises clampdown on knives”
“Police in the UK's worst knife crime hotspots will be told to prosecute anyone caught with a blade, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said.”

“Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police's chief constable, has already ordered his officers to prosecute all offenders caught with knives, rather than issuing cautions.”

“However, Camilla Batmanghelidjh, founder of the charity Kids Company, warned that the proposals would not address the underlying causes of knife crime - gang culture and the drug trade.”

“Mr Brown added that he wanted to use teenagers as "test purchasers" to snare retailers illegally selling blades, and that he was considering outlawing the most lethal weapons.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/0 ... 49846.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[davidtx]

I just can't help but wonder where the likelihood death by firearm and death by knife sit relative to the likelihood of death by automobile. If they had their priorities straight, they should probably be banning automobiles (or perhaps start driving on the right side of the road).

[VoiceofReason]

I just can't help but wonder where the likelihood death by firearm and death by knife sit relative to the likelihood of death by automobile. If they had their priorities straight, they should probably be banning automobiles (or perhaps start driving on the right side of the road).

"or perhaps start driving on the right side of the road" Again, my wife is wondering what I am laughing about.

[5thGenTexan]

If someone wants to commit murder or snaps and in a fit of rage they CAN kill you with anything. What is the next item to be controlled by the government.

Screwdrivers
Tow chains
Hammers
Ashtrays
Ballpoint pens
Fishing line

If I want to kill you, I can find an implement that will allow me to do it. The only question is how efficiently can I do it with that tool. Man's ability to wreck mayhem against others will never be controlled by government.

I don't need or want a Nanny, just allow good people the right to defend themselves to the best of their ability with the most appropriate tool.

[kalipsocs]

Well CLEARLY we should outlaw hands because they wield the instruments that do the killing! BAN YOUR HANDS PEOPLE!

[budroux2w]

Large rocks have been killing people far longer than anything else.

[hirundo82]

If I want to kill you, I can find an implement that will allow me to do it. The only question is how efficiently can I do it with that tool. Man's ability to wreck mayhem against others will never be controlled by government.

Probably the major impetus for humans learning how to make tools was wanting weapons tomake killing easier (hunting, but also self-defense and other, less noble, purposes). Toolmaking is a major part of what makes us human, and government can never legislate that away.

[A-R]

Well CLEARLY we should outlaw hands because they wield the instruments that do the killing! BAN YOUR HANDS PEOPLE!

What about Mall Ninjas' hands? They are after all "registered lethal weapons", so as long as they're registered, can they keep their hands? Or does being "lethal" hands outweigh being "registered" hands?

[RPB]

There are even efforts to prevent beer glasses from being used as weapons. The following are quotes taken from two issues of the BBC News and a link to a site that talks about the beer glass issue. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/0 ... 49846.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I don't imbibe, but imho, they should make beer glasses illegal !!; they impair vision as well as jugment, err Judge-meant or summin like that... they distort reality.

[hoot]

I should think that a cricket paddle would be an awesome instrument.
Hoot

[MechAg94]

From what I have heard, it isn't just the nutty gun laws, but they have really bad juvenile laws and bad self defense laws. If a home owner even confronts juvenile delinquents or tries to get them off their property, they have a real risk of the police arresting them. Especially if the "kids" make false claims.

My solution, give all the homeowners guns and let them shoot any troublemakers with knives. The problem would be solved quickly. :)

[RPB]

Australia solved that problem and banned both guns and most carry knives, so people there are mostly murdered with scissors or axes or bats or cars crashing into the house. Their murder rate is higher than in the USA, and of course there is occasionally the criminal gun toting gang member at the airport shooting spree.
Well, guns in Adelaide, S.A. aren't actually "banned" in that you may own them and store them at the local Police Dept and check them out like library books, and return them when finished. Adelaide did have a Mayor get a law passed that it was illegal to own a cat though, as they were hazardous to birds, and he enjoyed birds. (This was just prior to them getting a bird flu epidemic scare, and the Mayor getting voted out.) Another repealed law from that Mayor was the temporary use of burial plots, where you could rent it 5 years, then up you come ....

[marksiwel]

Australia solved that problem and banned both guns and most carry knives, so people there are mostly murdered with scissors or axes or bats or cars crashing into the house. Their murder rate is higher than in the USA, and of course there is occasionally the criminal gun toting gang member at the airport shooting spree.
Well, guns in Adelaide, S.A. aren't actually "banned" in that you may own them and store them at the local Police Dept and check them out like library books, and return them when finished. Adelaide did have a Mayor get a law passed that it was illegal to own a cat though, as they were hazardous to birds, and he enjoyed birds. (This was just prior to them getting a bird flu epidemic scare, and the Mayor getting voted out.) Another repealed law from that Mayor was the temporary use of burial plots, where you could rent it 5 years, then up you come ....

Not trying to throw this off topic but everything I've seen says the US Murder rate is higher
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_m ... per-capita" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
USA is number 24 and Australia is number 43.

[chartreuse]

Not trying to throw this off topic but everything I've seen says the US Murder rate is higher
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_m ... per-capita" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
USA is number 24 and Australia is number 43.

The UN ICS figures are generally regarded as definitive, but the problem is they don't distinguish between what one might call "real murders" and two gangbangers killing each other over a drug deal (what you might call "Who cares? murders").

I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that, if we were able to strip out the red-on-red killings, we'd find that we have a lower rate of red-on-blue killings than many countries with lower aggregate rates.

[RPB]

Yeah, I suppose it's in the statistics. Either mine are older, or what I had seen before included manslaughter or assaults or other "violent crimes" and I mistakenly said "murder rate" I have a book in the other room "How to lie with statistics" ... by including only the catagories you want counted etc.
For example:
Australia: Readers of the USA Today newspaper discovered in 2002 that, "Since Australia's 1996 laws banning most guns and making it a crime to use a gun defensively, armed robberies rose by 51%, unarmed robberies by 37%, assaults by 24% and kidnappings by 43%. While murders fell by 3%, manslaughter rose by 16%."

"Murders" as defined by their laws, fell just a little bit, while other "violent crimes" rose a lot.
As in a negligent homicide/manslaughter while performing an armed robbery of a place may be a better sentence than a murder while doing the same and a lot of plea bargaining happened in Aussieville in order to tell the population their new gun control was working and reducing murders.....
Sorry for the inaccurate initial statement.