British Doctors Calling For Knife Ban To Prevent Impulsive Stabbings
British doctors are calling for a ban on kitchen knives to prevent stabbing incidents. A West Middlesex University Hospital group contends that violent crime is increasing in Great Britain and kitchen knives are used in approximately half of all stabbings. The team claims that many of the knife attacks are impulsive acts and that a kitchen knife is too convenient of a weapon.
The British medical team discussed the kitchen knife stabbing problem with a group of 10 renowned chefs, according to Front Page Mag. The United Kingdom chefs reportedly noted that kitchen knives have little practical application in culinary endeavors. Apparently, the cooking experts feel that a short blade works just as well as a long one when a sharp tip is needed.
If the movement to ban kitchen knives in the United Kingdom is successful, the law will be the country’s second major attempt to thwart violence by passing new legislation. After experiencing mass shootings during the 1980s and 1990s, Great Britain instituted very strict gun laws to curtail violence.
Laws on the books since the 1920s already mandated that any citizen wishing to own a firearm had to get permission from the local police station noting the individual was “fit” to own a gun and that a good reason existed for the weapon possession.
Since 1969 self-defense was not a good enough reason to garner a gun ownership certificate, according to the Wall Street Journal. After a mass shooting in the town of Hungerford where 16 people were killed semiautomatic rifles were banned and shotguns were subjected to the same laws as rifles and pistols. As a result of a mass shooting in the Scottish town of Dunblane, the Firearms Act of 1998 was put into place. Pistol owners were required to turn their weapons in, or face 10 years in prison.
The British gun ban has done little to decrease violence, according to Wall Street Journal statistics. A 2010 mass shooting took the lives of 12 people, leaving another 11 injured.
