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submitted 6 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

A familiar horror reached Pooja Kanda first on social media: There had been a sword attack in London. And then Kanda, who was home alone at the time, saw a detail she dreaded and knew all too well.

A man with a sword had killed a 14-year-old boy who was walking to school. Two years ago, her 16-year-old son, Ronan, was killed by two sword-wielding schoolmates while walking to a neighbor’s to borrow a PlayStation controller.

“It took me back,” Kanda, who lives near Birmingham, said about Daniel Anjorin’s April 30 killing in an attack in London’s Hainault district that also wounded four people. “It’s painful to see that this has happened all over again.”

In parts of the world that ban or strictly regulate gun ownership, including Britain and much of the rest of Europe, knives and other types of blades are often the weapons of choice used in crimes. Many end up in the hands of children, as they can be cheap and easy to get.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 55 points 6 months ago

In parts of the world that ban or strictly regulate gun ownership, including Britain and much of the rest of Europe, knives and other types of blades are often the weapons of choice used in crimes. Many end up in the hands of children, as they can be cheap and easy to get.

Before people come in and use this as an argument against gun control, these attacks kill far fewer people per attack.

[-] theinspectorst@kbin.social 36 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The homicide rate in the US is about 6-7 times that in the UK per 100,000 population. I'd take our situation any day of the week.

Last time I looked into this properly, knife crime in the US was actually roughly the same frequency as that in the UK. The difference is that knife-based murders stand out in the UK, whereas in the US nobody pays attention because the problem is dwarfed by the much greater problem of rampant gun crime.

[-] shasta@lemm.ee 9 points 6 months ago

But if the rate of knife attacks are currently the same, then logically it would make sense that knife attack rate would be much greater in the US than UK if guns were to be banned because some percentage of the current gun crime rate would convert to knife crimes. I guess the US is just a more violent place in general.

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 months ago

Just turn on the tele. In Europe there is a shocking amount of nudity to an American, and in America there is a disturbing amount of violence to a European.

[-] shasta@lemm.ee 4 points 6 months ago

Yes those are both true. What's your point?

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago

My point is, you don't even need to look up the stats to see that it is true, just turn on the TV. Entertainment and media is a reflection of culture.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago

The mass stabbing in Australia the other week had a victim count that wouldn’t even make national news in America, but in Australia it was so bad that the pope commented

[-] Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.com 10 points 6 months ago

The US public and Congress have been making a mistake for 40 years by getting distracted by the "how" and not focusing on addressing the "why".

Don't make the same mistake.

[-] huginn@feddit.it 9 points 6 months ago

You can both engage in immediate harm reduction while also working towards solutions to poverty and deprivation.

Providing for people's needs will be the most effective way to reduce the violent crime rate... But it won't go away entirely. Ever. Some people have their heads screwed on backwards. Some people have fringe religious ideologies that encourage violence. Some people are raging alcoholics even with money and security - they'll commit domestic violence no matter how wealthy they are.

None of them should own guns.

[-] Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.com 0 points 6 months ago

When politicians are looking to score points with the public will they enact expensive social safety nets, or will they push for cheap and quick weapon bans?

Do politicians care about efficacy, or do they care about appearing to take action?

If a person's goal is to reduce homicides the means need to be decoupled from the argument. It's highly counterintuitive, but four decades of US domestic policy have proven that if the means of homicide are a part of the discussion politicians will focus on it in order to look like they're doing something without spending enormous amounts of taxpayer money - efficacy be damned.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago

It seems to me that politicians on one side in the U.S. are against a social safety net and gun control and the other side are in favor of a social safety net and gun control. So your argument really doesn't make much sense. Who are these politicians who are pro-universal healthcare but anti-strengthening gun regulations?

[-] Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.com 0 points 6 months ago

You're missing the point, none of them really want the social safety nets, that would kill the wedge issue. Keeping people arguing about gun control drives political engagement and votes. Both parties have a vested interest in not resolving the issue. Actually solving the problem would be a nightmare for them.

Look, if you want to spend the rest of your life watching your elected officials chase symptoms in order to drum up funds and votes, go right ahead. Just don't say you weren't warned when you let them get away with it.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago

none of them really want the social safety nets

Many bills that have been submitted suggest otherwise.

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[-] huginn@feddit.it 4 points 6 months ago

Approximately the same number of people die from gun homicides as homelessness in the USA.

I don't want to solve either/or - I want to solve both.

And while deprivation is a common root they have other uncommon causes that need addressing. The gun craze of America needs to be clamped down on and regulated.

We have the ability to do both. Why would you argue against one?

[-] Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.com -1 points 6 months ago

Because the gun laws in place are about as far as things can go without repealing the second amendment. Further laws are either doomed to fail or make only marginal differences.

Those bills and proposals waste precious political capital that could otherwise be used passing laws that address the root causes of homicide.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Okay, what's the 'why' of killing significantly more people during such attacks? Because it seems to me like simply having the ability to do so with a gun when it's far more difficult to do so with a knife is part of the why.

[-] Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 6 months ago

Buddy, you're obsessing over the means. Focus on motive.

I'd rehash the same points about how a person can commit mass murder with a car, but for guys like you talking about murder weapons is like being a pig in shit.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago

You didn't answer my question:

what’s the ‘why’ of killing significantly more people during such attacks?

You can claim people commit mass murder like that with a car, but can you show that car mass murders come even close to events like the Pulse nightclub attack, the Las Vegas mass shooting or Uvalde?

So, again, what is the why?

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[-] BobbyNevada@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 6 months ago

The only way to protect yourself from a bad guy with a sword is a good guy with a spear.

[-] Sizzler@slrpnk.net 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)
[-] BobbyNevada@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 6 months ago

Narwhal is cool, but do you want to use the good Narwhal on just anyone? I want to use it for special occasions or that certain someone.

[-] Wanderer@lemm.ee 15 points 6 months ago

Blades that can kill will never be banned. Therefore it's a problem with the people not with the blades and that's where the solution will lie.

[-] Vilian@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

err, they were killed by a sword, this can be banned tho

[-] Specal@lemmy.world 10 points 6 months ago

Banning the sword does not delete the sword. It will still exist, killing a person with a sword is already illegal and people still do it. It's a much deeper problem

[-] testfactor@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago

That is one of the arguments most often used against gun control as well.

[-] Specal@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago

The difference is people in the UK don't need guns, there's no use for them except "in rural areas". While yeah you can ban swords, the people stabbing people with swords could just as easily switch to kitchen knives . And I don't know how I'm going to chop my veggies if we go down the road of banning every item people use to kill eachother.

The UK has severe mental health issues due to underfunding of health services. We also have severe poverty growth, we have alot of worsening of of situations for people that we need to address.

[-] theinspectorst@kbin.social 6 points 6 months ago

The UK is a society where violent crime is pretty uncommon. The homicide rate in the UK was 1.0 per 100,000 population in 2023. That has been broadly trending downwards in recent decades, after rising during the late 20th century and hitting a peak at c1.8 per 100,000 in 2003. The US is a much more violent society: their homicide rate is around 6.4 per 100,000 population.

Killers are always going to find weapons - if you ban guns they'll find knives, if you ban knives they'll kill with something else. One difference is that a killer on a knife rampage is going to kill a lot fewer people before they're stopped than a killer with a gun. I guess killing with a knife is a more 'involved' act than just pointing a gun and clicking the trigger, so the bar for someone stabbing with a knife is probably a bit higher than killing from several metres away with a gun.

But part of it is a societal thing - my hunch is that (in relative terms) society in the UK and most other rich Western liberal democracies just instills in people an instinctively higher value on human life. You see it in US exceptionalism in use of the death penalty, the frequency of police killings, etc. I don't want to exaggerate the difference - the US still has far fewer murders than Colombia or South Africa or Brazil - but there are other Western countries like Canada or Finland where guns are still pretty widely owned (albeit not quite to the extent of the US) that don't have the same problem of violence as the US.

[-] Obi@sopuli.xyz 3 points 6 months ago

Why do people in the US not "in rural areas" need guns?

[-] Specal@lemmy.world -1 points 6 months ago

Because how else do they shoot the black folk?

[-] autotldr 1 points 6 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Although the number of fatal stabbings has mostly held steady in England and Wales over the past 10 years, headline-grabbing attacks and an overall rise in knife crime have stoked anxieties and led to calls for the government to do more.

Of the 244 fatal stabbings in England and Wales in the 12 months ending with March 2023 — the most recent figures available — 101 were committed with kitchen knives, far surpassing any other type of blade, according to the Office of National Statistics.

But the uptick in knife crime and a steady drumbeat of shocking attacks, including those that killed Ronan Kanda, Daniel Anjorin and three people in Nottingham last year, has pushed the issue to the forefront.

And certain types of blades are already illegal, including switchblades and so-called zombie knives, which come in various sizes, have cutting and serrated edges, and feature text or images suggesting they should be used to commit violence, according to the 2016 law banning them.

The details of stabbing attacks differ, but Pooja Kanda said she sees similarities — chiefly the emotional what-comes-next: bewildered, shattered families, anger that such a thing could happen to a child or anyone again.

The U.K. Home Office said in a statement that crimes with straight swords are rare and were not raised by the police as a specific concern, so officials focused instead on zombie-style knives and machetes in the law that takes effect in September.


The original article contains 1,211 words, the summary contains 241 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

First, they came for the Vickers Model 1931, and I said nothing.

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this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
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