Weapons bans

[babayaga67]

I am not trying to be political here or start any debate. I am just looking for facts, and since there are a few people on here from the UK I was hoping I could get real answers.

I know that there has been a wave of stabbings in the London area. There have been US conspiracy groups that have been saying that Great Britain is banning all knives. I have heard Americans saying that police officers in Great Britain are going to start going door to door and confiscating any knife over 10cm and rounding off the point of any knife 10cm or shorter. No box cutting knives are allowed to be sold in stores or delivered to peoples homes. You will evidently have to receive a special permit to work in a restaurant and handle any knife. Any knives used in restaurants will have to be placed in a safe after store hours. 

In my experience, people from the UK tend to be more rational. This idea to take away everyone's knives so that they can't even cook is stupid to me. It also seems impractical to go door to door to ask people for their tools. I use knives when I go fishing, when I cook around the house, when I try my hand  at wood carving (though I am terrible at it) or when I want to open kids toys (they are becoming ridiculously complicated to open).

Again, I am not looking to hear about what "he said she said was going to happen" stuff. What are the current rules that are being implemented, and what changes are most likely to come in the near future. I want actual facts that are not being rewritten by american nut jobs.

 

*not all Americans are nut jobs, but I have met quite a few.

[phill]

I've (personally) not heard anything of the kind.  There aren't enough Police to do the jobs they are supposed to be doing, there certainly aren't enough to try going door to door around the whole country. I wouldn't discount everything your nut jobs are saying though because we are a powder keg right now.  If I hear anything different about the knife ban I will let you know though.

 

(also, you're lucky if you can get your parcels delivered at all in the Scottish highlands, because  here be dragons or something, snickering to myself that the old bill would be venturing up there for kitchen knives)

[jellysundae]

*hides knives and boards up front door*

This SCREAMS of over-blown drama, doesn't it?! I pay close to zero attention to the news so let's see if the BBC news site has any light to shed . . .

Violent crime: Is it getting worse?

That's from yesterday and there's nothing there about the coppers coming to take my means to prepare my dinner away.

[rntracy1]

1 hour ago, jellysundae said:

*hides knives and boards up front door*

This SCREAMS of over-blown drama, doesn't it?! I pay close to zero attention to the news so let's see if the BBC news site has any light to shed . . .

Violent crime: Is it getting worse?

That's from yesterday and there's nothing there about the coppers coming to take my means to prepare my dinner away.

Right!!!  LOL.  I could see you now, "I need to cut my steak.  Where have all my steak knives gone? Those darn police officers at my door today took them all!  And this darned rounded down, blunt edged, pocket knife just ain't gonna cut it (literally).  Whatever will I do?"

I sometimes put stock into things conspiracy theorists say.  But THIS, pfffft, LOL, not at all.  For example, I grew up in Connecticut and live right over the line in Massachusetts now.  If the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School really did happen, I feel sorry for those parents.  I'm just not buying it.  Of all the school shootings, you see lots of footage of kids running from the building(s), jumping out of windows, crying, total chaos.  The ONLY picture you see of Sandy Hook is one still shot, of like 6 children, walking in a line, with one hand on the shoulder of the student in front of them.  And when you look around, there's nothing else.  Sorry, don't buy it.  If all that carnage happened, there would be more chaos than that.

Now, the theory that Paul Walker's death was hoaxed to promote the Fast 7 film.  Not a chance.  While it CERTAINLY did that, I don't think he would have missed the 8th movie.  That's possible, but here's the MAIN reason I don't think it was a hoax.  Because, if it were going to be a planned hoax, it would SURELY be Vin Diesel who would want the glory of being the star of the hoax.  But then again, I guess he has found a way to make it all about him.

[jellysundae]

@rntracy1 the tabloid media have a whole lot to answer for, don't they.   Particularly now as they have a far wider reach through their websites than they ever did through their papers alone. Plus the fact that now, because competition for clicks is so very fierce they over-dramatise way more than they ever did when there was just physical newspapers, and they went pretty over-the-top then!

They blow stuff out of proportion SO much now that it's ludicrous, but people with a penchant for the over-dramatic lap it up, and inflate it further, and so you then get ridiculous stories about the UK having its cutlery confiscated . . .

If anyone wants me, I'll be in the kitchen trying to cut up a sweet potato for the soup I intend to make later, I could be gone for some time . . .

 

[rntracy1]

48 minutes ago, jellysundae said:

@rntracy1 the tabloid media have a whole lot to answer for, don't they.   Particularly now as they have a far wider reach through their websites than they ever did through their papers alone. Plus the fact that now, because competition for clicks is so very fierce they over-dramatise way more than they ever did when there was just physical newspapers, and they went pretty over-the-top then!

They blow stuff out of proportion SO much now that it's ludicrous, but people with a penchant for the over-dramatic lap it up, and inflate it further, and so you then get ridiculous stories about the UK having its cutlery confiscated . . .

If anyone wants me, I'll be in the kitchen trying to cut up a sweet potato for the soup I intend to make later, I could be gone for some time . . .

 

WHOA!!! WAIT A MINUTE THERE!!!  That knife is quite sharp!  Let me ground down that serrated edge, lop off about 1 inch from the top, and you may have it back.  "Lop, lop, lop lop lop.  Ok. Here you go!"

 This should do it for ya!

[jellysundae]

1 hour ago, rntracy1 said:

WHOA!!! WAIT A MINUTE THERE!!!  That knife is quite sharp!  Let me ground down that serrated edge, lop off about 1 inch from the top, and you may have it back.  "Lop, lop, lop lop lop.  Ok. Here you go!"

 This should do it for ya!

I AM GOING TO STARVE TO DEATH!!!

- 1 jelly - 0

[Kute]

I have not heard about this. In fact I havent even heard about the stabbings. Youre right though most of America is wrapped up in being a ongoing society of nutjobs as we are basically on the brink of another civil war over gun rights LOL.  Gosh I do hate politics...  anyhow that seems quite unlikely! I wouldnt worry. If media was not terrorizing its audience with scary news stories there wouldnt be an audience. People like to gossip over drama and whatnot and get all riled up. If they had good news all the time the ratings would probably drop. 

 

Also to this day I can not watch a F&F/ Paul walker movie I'm still highly traumatized about his death/ the way he died/ i have an irrational fear of cars/crashing. / he was my celeb crush. RIP Paul Walker

[Winter]

I'm British, and this is legitimately the first time I've ever heard of this  Do Americans love finding out what's going on in the UK, and find fake news stories?

I mean, it's true knife crime is a problem (especially in London) but the whole banning sales of knives and...going door to door?!  The police can't even cope with basic responsibilities, and the government/council take weeks/months to sort out potholes in the roads.

At the moment, EastEnders (a popular British soap opera) is doing a big story line about knife crime...so maybe that might have influenced this mania? 

[MinaxUmbra]

I recently did a senior paper regarding gun control(not going to say where I stand on the issue) and one article I found on Fox News quoted the London mayor saying "There is never a reason to carry a knife" (I might not have the exact wording right but that was the intended message). Odds are what you are seeing is people reacting to that statement and jumping to conclusions.

[babayaga67]

So most of it is just exaggeration? There are not a bunch of new bans or laws. The knife ban is the same common sense one that has been in place for years? As long as you aren't acting like  a nutter butter than who cares?

@jellysundae thank you very munch for that article. It was exactly what I was looking for.

*conspirator mode on* unfortunately the government is tracking everything I do online and they have been targeting my google searches in an effort to make me think that anything and everything outside of america is super dangerous.

*mode off* It could also be that I am terrible at the internet. I have never been very good at googling.

[jellysundae]

9 hours ago, MinaxUmbra said:

one article I found on Fox News quoted the London mayor saying "There is never a reason to carry a knife" (I might not have the exact wording right but that was the intended message)

Ah but Fox news . . . see as a Brit, what I've picked up about Fox News is that they're on the same kind of level as the tabloid papers here and best to be dismissed? That's the impression that's created about them by people online, anyway. Not an issue with a mild comment like this one, though a foolish comment from the Mayor? (Oh wait, is Boris still Mayor . . . *checks* nope, so no understandable reason for foolish comments!) I mean it's a wee bit sweeping, isn't it? There's plenty of reasons for carrying a knife, it's the KIND of knife that's the issue.

Big difference between say this

and this!

But @babayaga67 yes, it's most definitely just exaggeration

13 hours ago, Winter said:

but the whole banning sales of knives and...going door to door?!  The police can't even cope with basic responsibilities, and the government/council take weeks/months to sort out potholes in the roads. 

I have something running through my head now . . . harking back to door-to-door salesmen, this is actually a drive to increase police funding. They turn up to take away all your sharp knives, and you have to buy special safety knives from them to replace them!

The confiscated knives can then be melted down and used to fill the potholes. Win/win, right?!?!

[Nielo]

On 6/8/2018 at 3:21 PM, rntracy1 said:

I sometimes put stock into things conspiracy theorists say.  But THIS, pfffft, LOL, not at all.  For example, I grew up in Connecticut and live right over the line in Massachusetts now.  If the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School really did happen, I feel sorry for those parents.  I'm just not buying it.  Of all the school shootings, you see lots of footage of kids running from the building(s), jumping out of windows, crying, total chaos.  The ONLY picture you see of Sandy Hook is one still shot, of like 6 children, walking in a line, with one hand on the shoulder of the student in front of them.  And when you look around, there's nothing else.  Sorry, don't buy it.  If all that carnage happened, there would be more chaos than that.

I know I'm straying off topic, but... are you seriously saying you don't think the Sandy Hook school shooting happened? Oh boy. I don't see how lack of footage can count as evidence for something not happening, so I'm not really sure how to effectively counter that argument, but here's a link to a really depressing Cracked article, about how the father of one of the kids who died gets death threats from people who don't believe the shooting happened; it has some links that debunk the conspiracy theories. (Warning that Cracked uses swear words that aren't allowed on the forums.)

Anyway, as a rule, I think it's best to stay far, far away from any conspiracy theories. Rule of thumb: if something sounds as ridiculous as the police going door to door to collect people's kitchen knifes, it's probably not true. And if it's something about another country, but that country isn't reporting on the thing*, it's also most likely not true. But when in doubt, Snopes often has a good, well-researched answer. Here's an article they did on a UK knife ban, back in 2015. It sounds like some of the things @babayaga67 read might originate from things quoted in there. Plus, if you want to read more depressing stuff, here's an extensive article debunking a conspiracy video that claimed the Sandy Hook shooting didn't happen.

After diving deep into "Sandy Hook Truther" territory (which unfortunately only requires a simple "Sandy Hook" google search), I'm going to look at videos of puppies and kittens for a while now.
 

*Google tip: if you want to search something on a specific site (say you want to know if the BBC ever reported on a knife ban), you can enter this into the search engine:
site:bbc.co.uk knife ban

That way it'll only search bbc.co.uk for articles. Here's a site with more search tips.