To ban crossbows & Military style knives in UK?

Way back further than that, you used to be on first name terms with your beat bobby and you probably owned a revolver. If your beat bobby got into a spot of bother and needed a weapon, they'd knock on your door and ask to borrow your revolver. Now, police have CS gas, batons, tasers and if they are city police and patrol busy places like St. Pancras International Station, they'll have MP5s (which are lovely guns in my opinion).

Oh yeah, most Londoners owned a revolver! Except I never met a single one of them. Wasn’t on first name terms with the ‘local Bobby’ either nor knew anyone who was. Except someone who was married to a policeman! What sort of company did you keep?

We are responsible licensed gun owners.
I think that crossbows should be licensed in the same way.

However, this isn't a knee jerk reaction to yet more male violence against women and gang violence; (the real problems in the UK today)
it's just sense to treat the new modern crossbows similarly to guns.

As for knives, several of the more alarming types are already banned.
Which doesn’t affect their use in gang and drugs violence one iota.

The kind of people who are going to commit knife crime won't be affected by bans.
I would, for one. I have some beautiful knives.

You can't ban everything which can be used to kill people. You can kill someone with a kitchen knife or a regular bow and arrow. Do we ban those too?

Just to be clear I'm very anti-gun ownership. We have very few firearms deaths in the UK partly because our laws are pretty good and partly because the police aren't routinely armed. But extending bans to various items misses the fundamental point which is that there is a significant and growing problem with male violence against women and girls. And that won't be addressed by banning things.

It's reasonable to not be in support of self-defence, but that will very quickly change if you or friends and family find yourselves in a situation that you all could have handled a lot better if you had the means to protect and defend. If you have no effective means of defence, you face the consequences, however horrific they are. You can always change the outcome of a situation if you're prepared to defend and protect.

You have to have a license to drive a vehicle.

And what if someone without a licence steals one for the purpose of causing harm?

A lot of the arguments for these weapons in this thread seem to come from the same genre of excuse Americans use for allowing easy access to guns.

There is no reason for the average person to have a crossbow or similar type of weapon. Like guns they should be properly restricted and licences for purchase.

Knives is trucker as we do have a need fi certain types of knives in our homes. But any that is designed for a purpose other than necessary activities like cooking, etc again need to be restricted.

Knife crime is a major issue in the country so something needs to happen . We can't just ignore it.

Handguns were only outlawed in 1996/7 as a kneejerk reaction to Dunblane massacre, although I believe John Major had already laid the groundwork to criminalise them anyway.

Way back further than that, you used to be on first name terms with your beat bobby and you probably owned a revolver. If your beat bobby got into a spot of bother and needed a weapon, they'd knock on your door and ask to borrow your revolver. Now, police have CS gas, batons, tasers and if they are city police and patrol busy places like St. Pancras International Station, they'll have MP5s (which are lovely guns in my opinion).

I'm very pro-firearms and defence in general. An armed society is a polite society. Although I appreciate not everyone will agree.

That's what people want, it seems. Let them have it, I say.

Holy shit this site 🙄 yes let's ban absolutely everything that could possibly be used to kill someone that includes kitchen knives so we'll all have to start cutting our steak with spoons.

You have to have a license to drive a vehicle. If you do it incorrectly your license gets taken away.

@VolvoFan Do you think we should be allowed guns then? If not, why not?

All of the items you mention are tools. They're only weapons when misused/abused. You drive a car every day, I assume. What's there to stop you from running people over with it? Apart from your conscience, obviously? What's there to stop a kitchen knife being used improperly? Absolutely anything can be a weapon, including your own body, if you use it in the wrong way. Banning things just makes the problem worse. Criminals don't stop committing crimes just because they can't access tools in the conventional way, they'll source them from elsewhere by other means.

Well said.

I'd ban them.

It’s possible for 3 women to fight off someone with a knife. I don’t think you understand the power of a crossbow. They are designed to kill. They are much more powerful.

If I had to fight a bear I’d much prefer my odds with a crossbow than a knife.

Crossbow injuries to pets are on the rise.

As with so many other issues, it's one thing to ban something and quite another to stop people getting it, though admittedly a ban might make it a bit harder

It can also make weapons even more of a status symbol, and with the lack of will to tackle so many forms of lawbreaking I just wonder if a ban would have much point

It has been done before, there was the crossbow killer in Bradford a few years ago…
they should be banned in my opinion.

I think we can all agree that the fundamental structural issue at play is male misogyny and violence against women and girls - this must be tackled and we need to see action from this government, not just 'thoughts and prayers'.

I have for years worked with victims and survivors of abuse and yes of course the majority of them are injured with the man's hands and implements he can find around the home and banning these wouldn't stop that.

However, why would we make it easier for a man to hurt a woman. To implement regulations seems a common sense and relatively simple thing to do. It wouldn't stop those that have a legitimate reason for having one, possessing it as long as they met the stipulations, the same as gun ownership and would allow us to regulate the type of crossbows available. You could have prohibitions for example stopping anyone with previous arrests for violence offences or domestic abuse.

According to a lot of people on this thread I don’t know why we bother banning/ restricting any weapons seeing as though it apparently makes no difference. I imagine the stats around gun death would prove this wrong fairly easily mind.

No one needs a weapon that is capable of killing another person from a distance. Easy access to this weapon meant this horrific individual could murder three women without even working up a sweat. He didn’t have to get up close like he would with a knife, a rope or his bare hands. He didn’t actually have to acknowledge to himself what he was doing, he just had to push a button. Why anyone would want these things in general circulation is beyond me.

I’m interested to know whether those who think there’s no point banning crossbows also think there is no point banning guns? If so, I’m surprised because in my experience most Brits are happy that that we don’t have the same access to guns that the US has.

I agree. You have a chance with a lot of other weapons but this is effectively like a gun, a weapon that can be used at distance and for that reason alone, they should be banned outside of clubs etc.

Most of these total failed adults would not have the nouse to make one so there is always going to be a percentage chance of stopping a crime with a ban.

Another horrific example of violence by men against women and girls that involved a man killing his pregnant ex wife with a crossbow.

amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/29/man-jailed-for-crossbow-of-pregnant-ex-wife-ilford-london