I’m not sure where this belongs -
in my Tactical Blog or my Knife Blog. I
don’t write a social WTF blog, which is where the next two items really belong.
Let’s start here.
Great Britain once commanded an
empire that spanned the globe. Explorers,
merchants, settlers and military opened up continents and brought the English
version of culture and civilization to the world. But now England has become afraid of knives.
 |
| The police ask you to turn in your deadly butter knives before anyone is hurt! |
Having continually reduced the number
of firearms owned in England without eliminating crime, the English government
has refocused on outlawing knives. England has put drop boxes where you can
anonymously drop off your knife. Since
London has an extremely high level of CCTV coverage, I wouldn’t believe that
for a moment.
Recently criminals robbed a
‘knife surrender bin.’ Police claim they
have CCTV footage of the criminals hauling away the weapons collected by police
as part of a knife amnesty. No comment has
been made about the imminent arrest of these fiends.
If there is a lesson, it’s
criminals always find a way to get the tools they need.
Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/29/hunt-gang-ransacked-knife-amnesty-bin-9058584/?ito=cbshare
On a similar note, London’sRegents Park Police said that a local charity shop had handed over a collection
of potentially dangerous edged weapons to prevent criminals buying them. I can only assume the owner has some hidden
agenda or he’s mentally handicapped but perhaps not as badly as the police who
posted a picture of several knives, including a letter opener, a practice fencing
foil and a spoon as part of this
cache of deadly knives.
I can almost see the arch fiend
jumping out of the shadows with a fencing foil in the number 2 guard position,
a spoon in his other hand to break up your circular parry and the letter opener
tucked in his sash for close quarter combat.
Surely he would be bare-chested and wearing black yoga pants, a red
lined black cape and floppy hat with feather!
En-garde!
I blame England’s anti-knife
movement on the government’s inability to deal with crime and it is their
attempt to move the public eye off themselves an on to weapons as the
cause. America’s doing much of the same
thing.
On a more serious note, the Tuesday,
May28 2019 Akron Beacon Journal reports a local Tokyo man charged a group of
school children at a bus stop waving a knife in each hand screaming “I will
kill you!” Nineteen people were injured
including thirteen children. At least
two people are reported dead. I don’t
know if that number includes the attacker who slashed his own neck.
Again more proof that criminals
and crazies will find the tools of mayhem they need.
What does this have to do with
knife collectors?
Your knives are actually weapons
and as responsible collectors we must secure them from theft and misuse. You can also expect that at some future point
you will be vilified as a collector of these dangerous weapons. We only have to look as the history of
legislation of automatic knives.
In an effort to increase magazine
circulation, articles were published about these ‘toys that kill.’ To appear pro-law and order without any
actual work, politicians banned automatic knives. As collectors we are still struggling with
these silly laws and their ramifications.
Unlike England we have a Second
Amendment. We have organizations like
the American Knife and Tool Institute and Knife Rights to stand up for us. Join them, buy a membership and help them out. Remember the alternative.
