5.56X45mm
Milforum Mac Daddy
More than 17,700 knives, machetes and axes have been handed over to British police in an amnesty on sharp weapons.
Sharp weapons are used in more than a quarter of all homicides in Britain and the amnesty was partly prompted by fears of a growing knife culture in the country.
Authorities say the response in the first week of the amnesty has been encouraging but they have urged more people to turn in their weapons.
A similar amnesty ten years ago led to 40,000 weapons being handed over.
Junior Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker says the turn-in is encouraging but he is urging that more be given up.
"If you carry a knife out of self-defence, you run the risk of having it turned on you," he said.
The amnesty began on May 24 and runs until June 30.
Among a spate of recent fatal stabbings have been those of 15-year-old Kiyan Prince, a promising footballer attacked outside his London school, and part-time policewoman Nisha Patel-Nasri.
Several anti-knife campaigners have said the amnesty will not stop knife crime and demand tougher sentences for carrying weapons.
- ABC/Reuters
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1665250.htm
First the UK outlawed guns, violence went up. Now they are working very hard to outlaw knives. There is a law being debated that would make carrying a knife over 3" a major offence with a 5 year prison term.