The Link
The NRA and pro-liberty groups in America always used to argue that if guns were banned, the next step would be kitchen knives. The argument was just rhetoric. Nobody really believed it. But today's reductio ad absurdam argument is tomorrow's reality in a world where the proponents of absurd ideas are more than willing to push those ideas to their logical conclusion- if the public lets them.
Canada and the northeastern American states tend to be pretty nanny-ish. But even there, if medical bureaucrats made a proposal like this they'd be laughed out of public life. WTF is happening in England ?
England was the homeland of pretty much all our modern ideas concerning limited government, individual rights, and above all, the belief that grown men do not stand before the State as so many children before a parent. But this in fact goes beyond treating adults like children; no parent of emotionally normal children feels the need to keep the cutlery out of reach once the kids reach age 9 or so. Will the citizens of England really allow themselves to be reduced to the status of retards, prisoners, and mental patients, and their nation to be turned into a giant psychiatric prison ?
Doctors' kitchen knives ban call
A&E doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing.
A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.
They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.
The research is published in the British Medical Journal.
The researchers said there was no reason for long pointed knives to be publicly available at all.
They consulted 10 top chefs from around the UK, and found such knives have little practical value in the kitchen.
None of the chefs felt such knives were essential, since the point of a short blade was just as useful when a sharp end was needed.
The researchers said a short pointed knife may cause a substantial superficial wound if used in an assault - but is unlikely to penetrate to inner organs.
In contrast, a pointed long blade pierces the body like "cutting into a ripe melon".
The use of knives is particularly worrying amongst adolescents, say the researchers, reporting that 24% of 16-year-olds have been shown to carry weapons, primarily knives.
The study found links between easy access to domestic knives and violent assault are long established.
French laws in the 17th century decreed that the tips of table and street knives be ground smooth.
A century later, forks and blunt-ended table knives were introduced in the UK in an effort to reduce injuries during arguments in public eating houses.
The researchers say legislation to ban the sale of long pointed knives would be a key step in the fight against violent crime.
"The Home Office is looking for ways to reduce knife crime.
"We suggest that banning the sale of long pointed knives is a sensible and practical measure that would have this effect."
The NRA and pro-liberty groups in America always used to argue that if guns were banned, the next step would be kitchen knives. The argument was just rhetoric. Nobody really believed it. But today's reductio ad absurdam argument is tomorrow's reality in a world where the proponents of absurd ideas are more than willing to push those ideas to their logical conclusion- if the public lets them.
Canada and the northeastern American states tend to be pretty nanny-ish. But even there, if medical bureaucrats made a proposal like this they'd be laughed out of public life. WTF is happening in England ?
England was the homeland of pretty much all our modern ideas concerning limited government, individual rights, and above all, the belief that grown men do not stand before the State as so many children before a parent. But this in fact goes beyond treating adults like children; no parent of emotionally normal children feels the need to keep the cutlery out of reach once the kids reach age 9 or so. Will the citizens of England really allow themselves to be reduced to the status of retards, prisoners, and mental patients, and their nation to be turned into a giant psychiatric prison ?