Tough knife law is long overdue
■ THE easiest way to control knife crime would be to impose an immediate, automatic five-year custodial sentence on any individual found in possession of a blade on the street that’s not still sealed in its original packaging. The same for the individual who provided it or sold it to them.
If children are caught carrying and are below the age of criminal responsibility then the adult responsible for them should bear culpability.
People who are required to carry bladed tools for their profession, such as chefs, decorators, carpet layers and so on should be licenced to do so and required to transport them in a locked container.
Tough legislation is the only way to stamp out the blight of knife crime.
John Irving, Leeds
■ Thirty years after the fatal stabbing of Stephen Lawrence, knife crime is on the rise again in our lawless land.
There are 173 youths who’ve died in this way since 2016 – what a sickening waste of a young lives. We need much tougher laws. If found guilty of seriously injuring or killing someone, knife thugs get a prison sentence with a chance of early release for good behaviour while the victims’ families and loved ones suffer until they die. As for anyone caught carrying a knife, it should be a minimum of 10 years in prison without parole.
Melvyn Kaye, Portsmouth
■ It’s shameful to think that four previous Home Secretaries, despite their pledges, have failed to make the sale and ownership of machetes and zombie knives illegal.
Meanwhile, the number of knife crimes continues to climb unabated. So many lives could have been saved had a law been enacted sooner to ban these vile weapons.
Suella Braverman has promised to take appropriate steps to ban them – I just hope she won’t repeat the empty promises of her predecessors.
Michael Smith, Chatham, Kent
■ Anyone caught with a zombie knife or machete should get a five-year prison term, no ifs or buts. Any thug convicted of killing someone with a knife should get life without parole.
At present there’s little deterrent and these people act like they are above the law. The Government needs to make these weapons illegal – why would anyone have one of these without intending to do harm?
How many more lives will be lost before something changes?
John Kelly, Wirral, Merseyside
■ The figures on knife crime are truly shocking but we must never forget there’s someone whose life has been tragically cut short and a grieving family behind every one of these statistics.
It’s time the Government got their finger out and actually did what they promised to do seven years ago.
D Wilkes, Sale, Gtr Manchester
■ Suella Braverman is the fifth Home Secretary in seven years to promise to outlaw zombie knives and machetes.
Perhaps if she focused her efforts on the knife crime epidemic rather than scapegoating desperate people risking their lives to cross the Channel then we might see some positive results.
Samuel Farooq, South London
■ Seven years and five Home Secretaries later and the Tories have done absolutely nothing to stop knife crime.
This Tory government is inept at everything it tries to do. As for integrity, none of them has a clue what the word means.
Ian Fleck, Par, Cornwall