30/09/09
I Know My Rights!
(but I really wish HM Customs did .....)
In the UK today, people are being demonised for carrying or owning knives. The press regale us every day with stories of gangs and knife crime and murder. More and more police forces are launching poster campaigns to remind us of the threat that carrying knives presents, and the consequences if they catch us doing it. The media frenzy on knives doesn't actually give us the full picture though......
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The knife laws in the UK are actually pretty sensible, despite the debates that continue between the various parties and the government, however the true picture is rarely publicised.
Crudely summarised, fixed blades and locking folding blades are out, unless you have (and can prove) a legitimate reason to be carrying one. For example, a fisherman with a filleting knife in his tackle box, should face no issues, providing he's going fishing. If he tried to take that knife into a nightclub however, then he quite rightly should not be allowed to do that. This "good reason" approach depends a lot on individual police officers to make the call, but the evidence is that the police are clued up enough to let you pass, confiscate the knife, or even just advise you to take it and leave it at home.
Provided your knife's blade is under 3 inches in length, folds, and does not lock, then you are at liberty to carry it, however I personally wouldn't attempt to take even an innocent looking Swiss Army Knife into a football ground for example.
Unfortunately, we are currently caught in the midst of media hysteria and political manoeuvring that do not recognise these rights, and worryingly, there are increasing numbers of reports of knives being seized without, in my opinion, any legal basis at all....
1 comment
That seems awfully close to a "guilty until proven innocent" mentality. Here, police poking through people's things without genuine probably cause in the hopes that they'll find something (such as a Swiss Army knife with a locking blade in the glove compartment of an old couple's car) would bring the ACLU down on law enforcement here in a heartbeat, as well as kniferights.org and possibly the NRA (and nobody wants to have to deal with those loons :) ).
When I went to my local courthouse recently to renew my weapons carry permit (it covers guns *and* knives over a certain blade length now), I had to leave my small folding utility knife at the security checkpoint because I'd forgotten to remove it from my keychain, but that's as far as it went. No cops called, no justifying my carry of it, nobody thought I was a criminal waiting to strike. And I've never pulled either a gun or a knife on anyone, go figure.
What the D.A. in NYC has been doing lately to knife owners and knife dealers (google can bring up pleny of articles about it) is actually borderline criminal, but so far nobody with enough power and guts has been willing to take him on. Eventually, it'll be worse for knife users in NYC than it is in the U.K., which makes me glad I don't live there anymore (NYC).
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