Should knives with points be banned?

Not only do I not know, I really couldn't care....

I carry a knife. It's about three inches long and I keep it sharp. Mostly for work (because coming across a horse caught in a haynet once without anything to help is enough) but it quite often ends up in my bag.

Who the hell cares about your watermelons?

I have a couple of those nd they are excellent but bloody useless faced with a carrot or a big spud and wouldn't even touch a swede.

Tell me about it. Needed to replace some kitchen knives recently and because I was out of the loop re knife laws I tried to buy one from Sainsbury’s but there didn’t seem to be any. I asked a member of staff if they sold kitchen knives and she gave me a very stern look and said no very emphatically.

So yes, had to get them from Amazon and I did indeed have to show the delivery man my passport before he’d hand them over.

How would I do my paper cut crafts without a sharp point?

How would you cut a ripe tomato?
Er, with a small serrated knife, same as ever?

Yep, and they do exactly what it says in the packet. Get one and tomatoes just lie down and spontaneously disassemble themselves.

Unfortunately human skin is just as susceptible to their fiendish powers as tomato skin and I don't think I've ever used one without shaving a bit off my finger.

They probably use these already to get a better edge. But sales will rise.

The campaigns haven't proposed banning anything that is sharp, just the long pointed kitchen knives that are associated with the deepest and most severe injuries. Small knives can still hurt and kill but generally don't have the same association with severe injury because they don't penetrate as deep. Whilst it's quite old the BBC article linked above discusses this in more detail.

People use knives for crafts too. I do the occasional bit of paper cutting. You can't do that with a rounded edge. I use the same blades that surgeons do.

The knife tip isn't necessary for a lot of food prep - a lot of the concerns other posters have suggested could be solved by a different instrument e.g. scissors, regular cutlery. Which might be a bit inconvenient but not massively so. And these instruments of course still cause damage if used as a weapon - but not the horrible deep penetrating wounds caused by long bladed knives. Of course knives with rounded tips aren't completely safe - but there is evidence that the wounds generally would not be as severe as they wouldn't be as deep.

Making something harder to obtain or illegal doesn't stop it but does reduce the how often it happens. A good proportion of knife crime is unplanned - anything that makes accessing a sharp long knife a bit more difficult is going to reduce the amount of fatal stabbings. A bit like limiting the amount of paracetamol per purchase has not prevented all overdoses, but has reduced the numbers because its a bit more difficult.

It's not a new suggestion and to be honest I find the evidence behind previous campaigns to do this quite persuasive:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4581871.stm

www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/news/2020/september/experts-say-rounded-tip-knives-could-reduce-violent-crime.aspx

It’s not the poor knives fault, it’s the people that are using them. Best to just ban people, all of them. Just to be on the safe side

I don’t think they particularly need to be pointy so I agree with you op!

Newly manufactured knives should be pointless

@UnstableEquilibrium There's such a thing as a tomato knife?!?! I've reached the grand old age of 53 and never knew they existed.

I did buy a set of 'the world's sharpest knives' about 20yrs ago after being sucked in by a demo in a supermarket, even they don't cut a tomato unless its the one with a pointy end.

Who knew.

Stop and search was meant to stop stabbing. We had to scrap it, so clearly not anything that helps.

Surely anything that reduces stabbing deaths is worth a try?
If you make stabbings impossible (which you won't, because it's not that hard to grind down a blade to a pointed end), people who want to cause death and mayhem will turn to axes, chisels and many other tools with perfectly legitimate uses.

Exactly, they will find a way

I have been a patient in a psychiatric ward, and maybe anything that would be taken off of a patient on intake (pens were taken from me, and some people had deodorant removed), should be banned in the general public too.

How the fuck do I get into my watermelons then?

I dated a guy who worked as a psychiatric nurse. He was stabbed with one that was meant to be rounded and safer.

he explained to me that wounds can be worse from those. The patient in question was then given plastic cutlery. It's horrible to think about- the scar was all I saw and that was terrible. But if someone comes at you in a frenzy, with anything that can be used as a weapon...yikes.

honestly I don't think it would make much difference. If we don't sell any knives anywhere, then you'll have to sort scissors, tweezers, corkscrews etc next. The list is endless.

If you read books about prison (really good one by a female prison guard) or watch any prison tv shows its actually quite amazing the things people can construct weapons out of. Sadly, where there's a will there's a way but of course it's balancing dangerous people having access to dangerous items with normal people being able to live a normal life.

Only if you're banning screwdrivers, box cutters, sharp sticks, scissors, chisels, drills, and probably a hundred other things.

Yep, I got an age check thing when buying teaspoons. Oh, and when buying a ruler, was checked I was putting it in a bag. A ruler?!

@DalzielOrNoDalzielAndDontPascoe well yes exactly

The fact he had such a violent past and the authorities did f all about it is the biggest issue

And also this his Father stopped him doing something similar but did he report him to police or not?! If not he has blood on his hands too.