First guns, now bladed weapons. What will England ban next? Bats, kitchen knives?

[Joeaksa]

England has gone over the edge, in more ways than one.

After a massacre in Dunblane Scotland they had a kneejerk reaction to soothe the public outcry and banned all pistols in the country other than for law enforcement officers. The English Olympic team who uses pistols even has to travel to Switzerland to practice, they are deemed not safe and so not allowed to shoot a pistol even to represent their country in the Olympics! Just how stupid can this get?

Now some teenaged drug addict has assaulted a person with a Samurai sword and of course what does England do? Ban Samurai swords!

This goes along with their making it illegal to carry a knife in your pocked. Not sure about the rest of the people on this forum but I grew up with a shrade pocket knife in my pants as a young pup and still to this day carry a knife with me as a tool. Not planning on killing someone with it, its a tool. Course I also carry a pen with me and its as well a tool but on the other hand it could also kill someone. Wonder when England will make it illegal to carry a pen in my pocket?

They are saying that the swords will be legal to own if you are a "collector" but whats it going to take to become registered as a collector? Going down the slippery slope and eventually they will be banned completely just like pistols are now, whilst trying to make society safe from itself.

It seems that instead of stopping the crime the old fashioned way, or working on the problem at the root (most of these problems are caused by teenage kids trying to get drug money, or gang activity), they feel that its better to try to eliminate the weapon. Well kids, the brain is the most powerful weapon on the world, it can be used in all sorts of devious manners. Unfortunately it now seems that many of the authorities in the UK have lost their brains and common sense after this latest round of bannings.

~~~~~~~~~

Samurai swords to be banned

By Emma Henry and agencies
Last Updated: 1:55am GMT 07/03/2007

The sale of imitation samurai swords could be banned by the end of the year, the Home Office announced today.

Importing or hiring the weapons could also be made illegal following a string of samurai sword attacks in recent years.

Breaching the ban, which is targeted at cheap imitation samurai swords rather than the more expensive genuine collectors' items made by licensed swordsmiths in Japan, would result in up to six months in jail and a £5,000 fine.

Collectors and martial arts enthusiasts owning or using genuine samurai swords would be exepmt from the ban

According to Home Office estimates, there have been at least 80 serious crimes involving the swords in England and Wales over the last four years.

One MP recently warned that they were being used by criminal gangs as the preferred weapon of choice after guns.

Last month, amphetamine addict Hugh Penrose was jailed for at least 19 years for hacking a 21-year-old woman with a samurai sword and then deliberately running her over.

In October, Bradley Moran was jailed for 17 years for murdering another man with a samurai sword following an argument in a nightclub.

It is currently legal to buy samurai swords - which are freely available at martial arts shops and on the internet - provided they are not brandished in a public place.

The Home Office now wants to ban their sale as part of a wider crackdown on knives and bladed weapons.

Carrying a samurai sword in a public place already attracts a maximum jail sentence of four years.

Vernon Coaker, the Home Office minister, said today: "Samurai sword crime is low in volume but high in profile and I recognise it can have a devastating impact.

"Banning the sale, import and hire will take more dangerous weapons out of circulation, making our streets safer.

"We recognise it is the cheap, easily-available samurai swords which are being used in crime and not the genuine, more expensive samurai swords which are of interest to collectors and martial arts enthusiasts."

"It is already illegal to have a samurai sword in a public place but I want to restrict the number of dangerous weapons in circulation to enhance community safety."

The plans are outlined in a consultation paper, Banning Offensive Weapons, published by the Home Office today.

At present there are 17 weapons, including knuckle-dusters and batons, on the Offensive Weapons Order.

The exemptions would be for groups such as the To-ken Society of Great Britain and the British Kendo Association.

Last year, Tory MP James Brokenshire (Hornchurch) said cheap samurai swords were as easy to buy "as purchasing a Lotto ticket".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/05/nsamurai105.xml

[Joeaksa]

Now Sky News has jumped on the bandwagon... Course the good part is that hundreds of viewers are writing in asking what the UK govt is going ban next and just who comes up with this silly chit.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,30000-1296684,.html

[Porsche-O-Phile]

It's the same problem in the U.S. resulting from an inherent flaw in an electorial form of government representation. It works like this:

1. Lawmakers feel constant pressure to act on things in order to avoid the appearance (or worse still, accusation by a challenger at re-election time) of being "do-nothing".

2. As such, they feel the need to sensationalize every issue possible to keep their names in the public eye and to appear "on it", passing far more legislation than is probably needed.

3. Most legislation goes into law without any provision for expiration or "sunset clauses". As such, the number of rules on the books grows and grows and grows until you get to the point we are at today - where virtually everything and anything from birth until death (inclusive) is either illegalized, regulated, overseen, restricted or taxed.

4. Problem is complicated by the ever-growing population of hand-wringing ninnies out there who want/expect the government to do things for them "because my tax dollars are paying for it!"



Sadly, even though this is crazy, I'm not sure whether the British or their former colonists (who separated from Britain for "freedom") enjoy more or fewer freedoms today. Eventually the weight of our own bureaucracy and laws will crush our society and things will need to start anew. It's only a matter of time.

It happened in the Roman Empire. Many scholars cite an over abundance of laws, lawsuits and lawyers as a catylist to the decay of order in the waning years of the Empire. History repeats.

[livi]

Eventually we will see the result of this strategy. Resembles the Swedish view and is the opposite of the American view. Will be highly interesting to follow up on after a few years.

[The Gaijin]

All those scary people in trailer parks? You can trace them back to the Mayflower and further back to villages of hovels in England. (Think Python films - "sling out your dead" and "Dennis, this is lovely filth down here..")

The problem we American's have is thinking they are a bunch of tea sipping gentlemen in bowler hats. When the fact is a huge percentage are yobs.

[LeRoux Strydom]

Originally Posted by The Gaijin

All those scary people in trailer parks? You can trace them back to the Mayflower and further back to villages of hovels in England. (Think Python films - "sling out your dead" and "Dennis, this is lovely filth down here..")

The problem we American's have is thinking they are a bunch of tea sipping gentlemen in bowler hats. When the fact is a huge percentage are yobs.

This is true of almost every country on mother earth. There are always far more yobs or masses of the great unwashed than the gentlemanly, educated type just about anywhere you care to look on this planet.

The ninnies out there think they are anointed to look after the interests of these masses. Unfortunately, their actions & laws affect everyone.

[TerryBPP]

I have a german friend who moved over here a few years ago. Pretty tough kid. He said that due to the ban on gun all the criminals carry flair guns. Easy to get and will kill you just as ease.

[tabs]

Most gun laws are on the books so that if they get you for another crime they can add one more charge to the list.

[Steve PH]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

It's the same problem in the U.S. resulting from an inherent flaw in an electorial form of government representation. It works like this:

1. Lawmakers feel constant pressure to act on things in order to avoid the appearance (or worse still, accusation by a challenger at re-election time) of being "do-nothing".

2. As such, they feel the need to sensationalize every issue possible to keep their names in the public eye and to appear "on it", passing far more legislation than is probably needed.

3. Most legislation goes into law without any provision for expiration or "sunset clauses". As such, the number of rules on the books grows and grows and grows until you get to the point we are at today - where virtually everything and anything from birth until death (inclusive) is either illegalized, regulated, overseen, restricted or taxed.

4. Problem is complicated by the ever-growing population of hand-wringing ninnies out there who want/expect the government to do things for them "because my tax dollars are paying for it!"

Absolutely spot on, it also doesn't help that the British public in general are pretty apathetic. If you try and bring in these kind of restrictions in some where like France, you would have riots.

The problem we American's have is thinking they are a bunch of tea sipping gentlemen in bowler hats. When the fact is a huge percentage are yobs

I don't drink tea or wear a bowler hat but I'm no yob!

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by Steve PH

Absolutely spot on, it also doesn't help that the British public in general are pretty apathetic. If you try and bring in these kind of restrictions in some where like France, you would have riots.

France? not over blade laws

but touch the retirement legislation, weekly work hours, holidays, stuff like that...


Embargo On!

the Riots and car burnings though, they are limited to the suburbs, and they don't care bout laws, they just like to burn cars whenever they find a reason, like "little rachid was chased by the cops because he accidently stole something, and then he hid in a power distribution house and got zapped, now we're upset"

[Seric]

Does. Not. Work.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Seric

Does. Not. Work.

Did not stop England, then Canada as well as Australia. The criminals forgot to hand in their guns and are still using them against innocent people.