WTH: It's illegal to carry a knife in the UK?

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: ddviper

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Nebor
Self-defense is illegal in the UK.

I'm not joking. You will face charges if you injure someone while defending yourself.

Yep. If someone breaks into your home you are expected to runaway. If you can't runaway, you are expected to completely cooperate with you assailant. I can't find the story now but this lead to a pretty horrific incident where a couple of burglars essentially tortured their victims.

:Q WTF, that is the stupidest thing Ive ever heard. No sir you cannot protect your own life from someone else just because you might hurt someone.

Wow thats just wow, I really cant think of anything to say bout that

As a British resident I have to say this is completely untrue, and one of the biggest examples of ignorance and xenophobia I have seen since I talked to canOworms in P&N.

Of _course_ you are allowed weapons in the home and to defend yourself. You are not allowed to carry weapons on the street and quite right too.

Not that anyone cares about actual facts here, but there you go.

 

[Atheus]

[A bump for the truth]

From another BBC article - "Met commissioner Sir John Stevens said householders should be presumed to have acted legally, even if a burglar dies, unless there is contrary evidence."

From the British knife collector's guild -

"What You Can't Have ...
The following items are banned from sale within the UK (although if you already own one you may keep it, but not use it outside of your own property) ... Switchblades, automatics or 'flick-knives', gravity knives, balisongs or 'butterfly knives', push daggers, belt buckle knives, sword canes, or knuckle-duster knives."

"What You Can Carry ...
The Criminal Justice Act (1988) says that you may carry a knife with a blade length of 3.0" or less so long as it is capable of folding. That means no fixed blade knives. But use your loaf - a knife has no place at a football match, in a pub, nightclub or school and becomes an offensive weapon in these circumstances in just the same way as a screwdriver, or any other innanimate tool."

 

[Atheus]

He wouldn't post again would he? Just to proove one little point? Oh yes. Here's nice little story.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/england/derbyshire/3954033.stm

Kenneth Faulkner, 73, who had endured a number of break-ins at his isolated farmhouse in Ockbrook, Derbys, has not faced any charges.

The burglar he shot, John Rae, 22, was given a seven-year jail term on Monday.

 

[KC5AV]

Anyone have an idea what the gun and knive involved murder rates are in the UK and USA?

Not murder rates, but how's this from the BBC?

Violent offences in England and Wales reached record levels in 2004-5 with police recording one million crimes - up 7% from the previous year.

Police figures show 1,035,046 violent incidents against the person, excluding sexual offences and robberies.

Total recorded crime fell 6% to 5.6m incidents, but gun crime was up 6%.

Minister Hazel Blears stressed overall crime fell, saying the apparent rise in violent crime merely reflected better reporting and recording of offences.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Reminds me of the old Simpson's episode....where Bart wanted a knife.

 

[JonTheBaller]

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: ddviper

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Nebor
Self-defense is illegal in the UK.

I'm not joking. You will face charges if you injure someone while defending yourself.

Yep. If someone breaks into your home you are expected to runaway. If you can't runaway, you are expected to completely cooperate with you assailant. I can't find the story now but this lead to a pretty horrific incident where a couple of burglars essentially tortured their victims.

:Q WTF, that is the stupidest thing Ive ever heard. No sir you cannot protect your own life from someone else just because you might hurt someone.

Wow thats just wow, I really cant think of anything to say bout that

As a British resident I have to say this is completely untrue, and one of the biggest examples of ignorance and xenophobia I have seen since I talked to canOworms in P&N.

Of _course_ you are allowed weapons in the home and to defend yourself. You are not allowed to carry weapons on the street and quite right too.

Not that anyone cares about actual facts here, but there you go.

Well, it's nice to know that the UK isn't totally screwed up. It still reminds me of how sweet we have things here though.

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: notfred

Originally posted by: deftron
It's illegal to carry a knife here (USA), unless it's in a shealth

:roll: Maybe in some places. There are no federal knife-carrying laws.

I thought that was pretty silly when I read it.
Statements like that normally come from people who dont leave their home state, and assume their laws must be universal.

But, I still dont like it when other countries make laws like this. It sets a bad precedent. Even if they have higher crime rates because of such laws, Americans have a tendancy to say "Look! Such and such country is doing it, why not us?"

Actually, thats how I feel about california compared to the rest of the U.S. Bad ideas can grow outward.

 

[ruffilb]

Gotta watch ol' airstrip one...

 

[Pacemaker]

Here is a more fair assesment of murder rates.

per capita murder rate

Edit: Hey America is actually below the world average on this one

 

[loic2003]

Originally posted by: Atheus
[A bump for the truth]

From another BBC article - "Met commissioner Sir John Stevens said householders should be presumed to have acted legally, even if a burglar dies, unless there is contrary evidence."

From the British knife collector's guild -

"What You Can't Have ...
The following items are banned from sale within the UK (although if you already own one you may keep it, but not use it outside of your own property) ... Switchblades, automatics or 'flick-knives', gravity knives, balisongs or 'butterfly knives', push daggers, belt buckle knives, sword canes, or knuckle-duster knives."

"What You Can Carry ...
The Criminal Justice Act (1988) says that you may carry a knife with a blade length of 3.0" or less so long as it is capable of folding. That means no fixed blade knives. But use your loaf - a knife has no place at a football match, in a pub, nightclub or school and becomes an offensive weapon in these circumstances in just the same way as a screwdriver, or any other innanimate tool."

Good work :thumbsup:

 

[DainBramaged]

Originally posted by: MulLa
Wouldn't you feel safer in countries where carrying any potential weapon is illeagle rather than one where it's perfectly legal to carry firearms and that they're readily avaliable for purchase. True you can get one too for selfdefence but I would not want to find myself in a gun fight situation with any potential armed criminal.

No way. I would much rather that ~50% of people carried .45's. If I were a criminal and I knew there was a good chance of a lot of people around me having a gun, I wouldn't do sh!t.

 

[eleison]

Originally posted by: DainBramaged

Originally posted by: MulLa
Wouldn't you feel safer in countries where carrying any potential weapon is illeagle rather than one where it's perfectly legal to carry firearms and that they're readily avaliable for purchase. True you can get one too for selfdefence but I would not want to find myself in a gun fight situation with any potential armed criminal.

No way. I would much rather that ~50% of people carried .45's. If I were a criminal and I knew there was a good chance of a lot of people around me having a gun, I wouldn't do sh!t.

Now if a criminal does decide to pull out a gun... he truly is a badasss; probably he's going to be a dead one.. but, at least he was a badass.. "props"...

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Ulfhednar

Originally posted by: Phil

Originally posted by: Ulfhednar
Some of you talk so much sh1t it's unreal. I live in the UK and you're allowed to use reasonable force (ie. not shooting people in the face like you frigging Yanks), you are also allowed to carry any knife under 3-6" in length depending on where you live.

Settle down, Beavis.

I'm settled dude. I just find it hillarious how much sh1t people talk here, it's totally unbelievable at times.

Unfortunately we suffer the same misinformation about your country that others suffer about ours. All we ever hear about is the prohibitive laws and the cases where people are tried for defending themselves. It paints a skewed picture that we believe in the absence of hard data or personal experiences.