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?

Why not do both? Ban the pointy knives and also look into why so many people are stabbing each other?

Imagine if they just made bullets less pointy they wouldn’t kill any one!

Because if you van pointy knives they would just find some other implement / way of harming

You are beginning to sound like a stuck record at this stage

Exactly what I said, when I heard this, @TheLightSideOfTheMoon.

It would be a completely pointless move.

Because if someone wants to seriously harm another person, the lack of a pointy knife wont stop them. It is the mind set that is the problem, not the item/weapon.

By banning pointy ended knives, you be disproportionally affecting the absolute huge majority of people who use pointy knives and don't stab people.
I have at least 15 pointy knives/blades in my home right now. How on earth would you propose I hand them in, or have them registered?

So how are people with low incomes supposed to be able to afford the knives they need to prepare their food, @OonaStubbs? Or do poor people not deserve to cook from scratch?

Anyone with criminal intentions will be able to buy a knife with a blunt tip, and make it pointed.

Just a quick glance around me in the living room and I can see at least half a dozen things (and that isn't counting the knitting needles individually) I could stab someone with if I was so inclined

None of them are pointed knives...

My hands could strangle someone. Maybe I should get a serial number for my murderous hands.

The number of people who would go to the trouble of fashioning a shiv by shaving down a toothbrush etc and using it to stab someone is fewer than the people who will pick up a pointy knife that is there and ready made and stabbing someone with that.

How many people need pointy knives to cook, as opposed to a sharp edged knife with a blunt end?

What happens with all the existing knives?
There will be more about than actual people. Millions.

How many people need pointy knives to cook, as opposed to a sharp edged knife with a blunt end

I think this has already been addressed up thread and a lot of people have given their comments / views

The number of people who would go to the trouble of fashioning a shiv by shaving down a toothbrush

Where there is a will there’s a way, if someone wants to be violent and cause harm they will find a way, anyway besides fashioning a shiv from a toothbrush it would be much easier to just sharpen a knife but aside from that they could use other means to attack like acid etc etc

I understand what you're saying and a lot of people are being deliberately facetious, par for the course on here lately.

The number of people who would go to the trouble of fashioning a shiv by shaving down a toothbrush etc and using it to stab someone is fewer than the people who will pick up a pointy knife that is there and ready made and stabbing someone with that.

Exactly. It's the ease in which they're readily available. Of course this will never be enforced because it's too sensible. Few cooking methods need a sharp pointed knife if you think about it. Professional kitchens and chefs aside obviously.

"How to reduce the risks of shank attacks in prisons" https://www.corrections1.com/products/corrections/articles/coping-with-the-never-ending-evolution-of-inmate-weapons-ss53WsriwtSdy2CN/

That's not the point, though. The point is the if someone is sufficiently motivated to kill another person, lack of access to a knife does not deter them.

Also, a knife doesn't need a point to cut someone's throat. You can kill someone by slicing one of any number of arteries in their body; a point is not required.

A lot of stabbings are done on the spur of the moment. Not premeditated.

If are carrying a knife on you, you have the intention to harm at some point and are willing to do so, otherwise why would you be carrying one

So the perpetrators just happen to be carrying a knife when walking down the street and the victim trips and falls onto the knife?

I think you are missing the point, just removing sharp knives wouldn’t solve the problem, they would just use some other method to harm, if someone wants to harm someone they will find a way

Pushing people in front of trains kills people. Should we make trains slower, with a more rounded front?

No the perpetrator is carrying a knife, gets into an argument or fight and stabs someone. If pointy knives were banned, would they go to the trouble of having made their own shiv to carry around with them? No doubt some would, but less than would carry something that is already sitting in the kitchen drawer or that can be bought from a shop ready to go.

And the people who want to stab will get something else

You're quite dense, really about this

The type of people who carry knives do it primarily because they feel the need to defend themselves. They don't walk around with a knife in their pocket just in case the opportunity to stab someone presents itself. So, yes, there's every likelihood that they'd find some sort of alternative.

I mean look at it this way - y'all have outlawed guns for the most part. So instead of carrying guns, people are carrying knives. If you outlaw knives, then they will carry something else.

But they could carry:
Knitting needles (double pointed or cable knit holders are smaller and less obvious)
Screwdrivers
Chisels
Forks
Axes
Blunt knives they've sharpened (because someone carrying a knife for "protection" isn't going to care it takes a little effort)
Hammers
Craft or Stanley knives
Metal kebab skewers

People who carry knives do so for a reason. That reason can be fulfilled with another sharp object

Which is why a ban won't help

The police are overwhelmed as it is so even if it came in it would not be enforced. Also so may people carry sharp knives for work. My dad was gardener and always had a sharp knife on him.

Also it would not make any difference because people carrying them with the intent to use them to injure or kill are not going to be be worried about it being the against the law are they