We must be tough on knife crime to end this carnage
IT HAPPENS every time the US suffers one of its alltoo-frequent school shootings. We read about how easy it is for Americans to walk into a gun store and come out with weapons and ammunition and ask: how can a country have such a cultural blind spot to allow retailers to aid and abet this slaughter?
But is Britain really so different? Swap the word “gun” for “knife” and Britain is just as lax. Already this year nearly 100 people have died from stabbings. Many of them have been youths caught up in gang warfare or disagreements which have flared up into murderous rage.
And yet at the same time, as a Daily Express investigation revealed yesterday, high street retailers are still openly selling knives to children. Out of 30 stores visited by teenage volunteers, eight sold knives without asking for any proof of age in spite of it being illegal to sell them to children.
In some shops sales assistants were prompted, when they scanned the barcode, that they must ask for proof of age but still failed to do so. It isn’t just corner shops which were happy to sell knives. A 17-year-old was able to buy a 6in chef’s knife in Marks & Spencer. Other shops which sold knives to volunteers as young as 14 included branches of Asda, TK Maxx, Lidl and Poundland.
OF course enforcing the ban on the sale of knives to children isn’t going to stop the bloodshed overnight. There are other ways for children to get hold of blades: they can take them without permission from the kitchen at home or they can steal them.
Nor is it possible to restrict ownership of knives in the way we do guns – without kitchen knives it would be extremely difficult to prepare food from fresh ingredients. They are essential tools for tradesmen. And even if we did ban them there are numerous other everyday items which could be used as weapons.
Yet there is still every reason why we should be making it harder for youths to obtain blades. From what we have read about this year’s sickening spate of killings it is clear that many fatalities are the result of confrontations that in previous ages would have been limited to flying fists – unpleasant