Should knives with points be banned?

[OonaStubbs]

All the recent attacks have been through stabbing, why not ban pointy knives and just sell knives with rounded ends? Or at least heavily, heavily restrict the sale of pointy knives to those who have a legitimate need for them, have them branded with serial numbers and prevent re-sale etc?

yes, you either need a serrated knife, or a sharp knife with a point to cut tomatoes without squashing them if they're ripe. using the point to nick the skin makes all the difference.
steak knives are great for cutting tomatoes.

I was quite surprised I didn't have to show I.D. when recently buying a knife online. the delivery was just left in my bin cupboard.

I was really surprised when they didn't take the pencil sharpener out of a sketching kit my husband was given when he was in Psychiatric. I sneaked it out. he'd been on suicide watch, I didn't want him having access to a razor.

that's a shame. my second favourite knife wasn't expensive, but it's very good, and I got it there.

My Mum does taxidermy. likewise, a pointed scalpel is essential for that (it's all roadkill. she doesn't kill anything to stuff them. oh, and a Tanuki that was somebodies beloved pet. he wanted the skull back, but didn't have the heart to process her himself, so offered her on a taxidermy site to anyone that would be willing to send him back her skull to keep)

When I was a kid my mum worked in a shop that sold flick combs, basically for blokes to keep in their pocket. You pressed a button and the comb came out. Only the comb part was made out of stainless steel, and lots of people bought them and filed down the steel comb into a knife shape, voila they had a nice shiny flick knife! They banned them eventually, but it just demonstrates what a waste of time banning pointy knives would be.

I acknowledge your point about the discussion in America. But the logic in the argument they're making is as flawed as ever.

A knife is a multi-purpose tool that, like many tools, can be used as a weapon with the right intent.

A gun is, by design, a weapon. At a stretch, you could say it might be a tool for someone who hunts, but even as such, the only job it's designed to do is killing. Big difference.

I once read about a woman who was stopped by police when they noticed/it was brought to their attention that she had a bread knife visible in her car - and they demanded to know why she had it with her and what her intentions were.

Apparently, they hadn't noticed the burger van that was hitched to her car...

What reason did you give for having it?

Well, except that knives are multi-purpose and the function of guns is to kill things (aside from bashing clays with shotguns, and target shooting with rifles and handguns). You don't need a gun in your kitchen, but you do need a knife...

Pretty sure you could sharpen that and do some damage! You can also slit someone's throat quite nicely with a knife with rounded end I'd imagine!

Pretty sure this idea will not save the world!!! Back to the drawing board OP!!

They should ban machetes.

They did in September 2024.

@UnstableEquilibrium
Those tomato knives are great for all sorts of things. We use them to cut cake as well. Did you know you can get a folding one for picnics? Not sure about the legality of taking it out though as the blade above the legal maximum and it locks.

If machetes are banned, where are they sourcing them from, Amazon, eBay? What is the punishment if you are caught with one?

The Stupid! It Burns!

We all have knives, machetes, axes, weird crap in our lofts and sheds that we've all forgotten about. We could ban knives now but there's about a century's-worth of stabby stuff in all our homes.

Perhaps convincing humans that their, and other people's lives are worth something is the answer.

If anything was going to convince me that we are all getting stupider this suggestion is it.

Glad I'm not in the UK anymore as I often forget to take my Stanley knife out of my pocket when I leave work so often carrying one.

They actually make knives in 7th grade metalwork where I am. Dunno if it's a pointy end one (as DD didn't want to make one)but probably as our traditional knives always have pointed ends and I expect they'd make traditional knives.

I bought one from a tool shop to use in my garden.

Because they will just slash someone rather than stab. A slash across the neck will have the same effect as stabbing someone to death, they die

How would I chop my veg?

Maybe we should legalise drugs that may stop a lot of crime.

Just bite it and chew it.

Stop overcomplicating your dinner.

I was a high risk missing person that was in MH crisis. You get searched when found.

I have seen videos of people who bite and chew instead of cutting veg. Probably fine if you are only preparing food for you... but for other people... ugh, gross!

This has to be one of the stupidest OPs ever. Is it even serious? Should we also ban cars so nobody can get run over?