UK has a knife crime problem?

Question

The UK has tight gun control, so the people there use knives instead. MSNBC news just showed that guns are used in 11% of homicides in the UK and knives are used in 66%. Doesn't that prove that people kill people, not guns? If you take guns away from people, they'll just find something else to use. Is the UK going to start outlawing the ownership of sharp objects? lol

But on the more serious side, the knife crime problem is getting pretty bad there especially amongst teenagers.

Answer 1

Yes, it's people who kill people. A weapon is merely a tool.

But in case you didn't notice, a criminal with a gun can do a h**l of a lot more damage to a lot more people than a criminal with a knife. You can usually run from a person who has a knife, or in most places find a reasonably effective weapon of your own that you can swing at him with (i.e. a chair, a lamp, or a broken beer bottle). Not to mention, a group of people can overpower a lunatic with a knife a lot more easily than a mass murderer who walks into a crowd with a semi-automatic pistol with a high-capacity magazine and randomly starts shooting away at everybody. Besides, when's the last time you heard of anybody robbing a bank with a knife? From what I can tell, making it harder for everybody to get firearms may not be the solution for preventing crime, but it's certainly part of it.

Answer 2

Well, isn't knife crime a lot better than gun crime?   If the guy at Columbine had a knife, he might have killed 2 or 3 people instead of 20 people.  If someone attacks you with a knife, you can fight back and the odds that you will survive are reasonably good.  If someone attacks you with a gun, forget it, you're dead.

And anyway, the murder rate in the UK (by any method) is about 4 times lower than the US.  So it's not like knifes are used in crimes over there nearly as much as guns are used in the US.

Answer 3

The US still has 3 times the per capita murder rate as the UK. 16,000 murders in the US to 1,200 in the UK. Perhaps if guns were more readily available in the UK, there would be a lot more murders. Certainly, you never hear of a drive-by knifing. You don't ever hear of someone trying to knife some other thug on the street and accidently stabbing some kid to death in the house across the street. You don't hear of someone going postal and knifing a dozen people to death within minutes.

Answer 4

ah, the UK i went there, never a problem. i dont understand why they outlaw guns, because when they do outlaws will be the only ones with guns, so people who need them for protection wont have them...

Answer 5

hey,the answer is real simple,carry guns..you know our Brit brothers have turned into pu*s*sies....

Answer 6

Yes, they do. A lot is made of gun deaths in the US, but generally (not to be callous, but it's true) most of those being killed with guns are criminals themselves. The average person is not really under much threat. Gangs kill each other.

I was very surprised by the amount of crime using "non-lethal" weapons in the UK. Many people I know from the UK who have relocated to the US are surprised at how safe the streets are in the big cities - they expected the wild west.

Dead is dead, whether it's a knife or a gun that did the deed. Crime is human, but it makes people feel better to point at guns/the US and say "See...?" Guns just do a more thorough and quick job of it.

Still think the US could do with gun control, though

Edit - yes, there is crime and murder in the US, but the UK also using a different system to compile the stats, they don't count crime under a certain age, etc...the methodology of  evidence gathering is not done to the same standard, so the stats are really not written in stone. Gun crime is also under-reported.

Answer 7

Criminals are going to get weapons (guns,knives, whatever) whether they are legal or not.  I have no problems with reasonable restrictions on gun ownership (registration, background check, waiting period, etc) and would even go so far as to recommend that anyone purchasing a firearm (of any type) be required to complete a gun safety and proficiency course that must be updated before the license is renewed.  But, an outright ban is in direct opposition to my rights under the constitution and gun ownership should be my personal choice.  

BTW, I don't currently own a firearm because my grandchildren are still young and are in and out of my home and it is my personal choice not to take a chance with them finding it and accidentally being shot.  An unloaded gun is less protection than a baseball bat!

Answer 8

you're being rediculous, knives are dangerous and must be controlled--banned if necessary, let them eat their vegetables whole.

Answer 9

The u.s. has a serious problem. We need to educate!

Answer 10

The UK has manys problems with Crime, after all we invented Crime..h**l we invented almost every-thing.

But on the more serious side. if people really wanted to kill people at will, they could do it with-out guns, knifes etc, they could do it with there bare hands if they wanted. It is just a convenience to use such weapons, Glasgow is the capital in the Uk for knife crime, the stats for here are frighting.

It won't be long before the Government put a mandatory jail sentence for any-body caught with a knife...but to be honest its all press hype this sort of crime has pretty much been the same for years in terms of stats.

Answer 11

The people in UK are so retarded they will just ban knives. And after that doesn't work they will just keep banning more of their freedom until they turn themselves into prisoners. They are pretty much already there. Did you know that "kinky s*x" is banned in the UK? WTF?!

Answer 12

Some of this is true Logic 316.. but a legal citizen with a handgun or several of them can also stop a person with a firearm. If there were no firearms, then a person with a knife has the decided advantage unless you are just looking to become a fillet of the day.

I have handled only four homicides involving 6 victims. However, only 2 of those six were killed by a firearm. That was by an estranged husband that was also a part-time deputy. He was a good shot. The other four were killed by knife ( 2 ), stomping to death, (1) and suffocation of a bound robbery victim. So, from my experience you are at least as likely to get stabbed to death around my hometown than shot and can also be killed in other ways.

Looks like ( of the few cases I handled other than suicides or accidental and traffic) only about 33 perent are killed by firearms.

Guess the only way to be saved from harm, death, murder, disease, and just plain bad stuff, is never to be born. We are all going one way or another. God has the plan but we aint listening.

Answer 13

Yes but MSNBC is not talking about the statistics for homicide there compared to here.  Of course people kill people not guns kill people, but it is a h**l of a lot easier to kill someone with a gun.  People get upset and make bad choices.  Sticking a knife into someone's gut is a lot more personal than point and shooting.  UK has a a very minor problem with homicides compared to the states.  The main problem with guns is that most of the ones out there are not regulated.  Serial numbers are scratched off and gang bangers have 'em.  It is naive to think that getting rid of guns will stop murder, but the impact it would have would be tremendous.