Officials in London are responding to 50 stabbing deaths this year by declaring war on knives and pleading with people never to carry one in public, decisions one second amendment expert calls “silly” and says is proof that taking away people’s guns doesn’t remove the desire of criminals to harm people.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted “No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife. Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law.” There is also an aggressive #knifefree campaign featuring teenagers discussing their dreams and their intention to never carry knives so they have a chance of achieving their goals.
Local police are tweeting images of items they’ve confiscated as possible weapons, including scissors, screwdrivers, pliers and gardening tools and declaring relief that such implements were now in police custody.
TheGunMag.com Senior Editor Dave Workman is shaking his head in disbelief.
“The mayor of London is acting silly , frankly, because bad guys who use knives to commit crimes are not going to turn those knives in. It’s just that simple, just like bad guys aren’t going to turn their guns in,” said Workman, who is also affiliated with the Second Amendment Foundation.
“I think this is an example of government run amok. They think they’re going to solve a problem by disarming the wrong people,” said Workman. “They’ve already disarmed the wrong people by taking their guns away from them and that makes them vulnerable to knife attack. I’m dumbfounded by the dumbness of the people in London under this mayor.”
One of the stabbing deaths this year came when a 78-year-old British man stabbed the upper body of a home intruder, who later died. Police arrested the man on suspicion of murder and appalled citizens erected a memorial to the deceased criminal across the street until neighbors tore it down.
“This 78-year-old man was simply defending himself inside the confines of his home from this criminal. For the Brits to even suggest that they might put him on trial for murder is just abysmal,” said Workman.
“At least in the United States, we still recognize that the individual citizen has the right to defend himself or herself from violent crime. In Great Britain, apparently it’s not that way anymore,” said Workman.
So how might the London story impact the U.S. gun debate? For starters, Workman suspects Britain will not be held up as the gold standard of gun control anymore.
“The next time a gun prohibitionist brings up the British example or the London example, he’s going to get laughed right off the stage,” said Workman.
He says the murders in London demonstrate why we need a robust second amendment.
“We’re boiling it down to the question of should you bring a knife to a gunfight. In the United States, where we’ve got more than sixteen-and-a-half million people licensed to carry, that’s a very real problem for the recidivist criminal who may want to bring a knife,” said Workman.
Gun control activists could point to the fact that the rash of stabbing deaths still do not equal the number killed in the Las Vegas shooting. Workman says that argument misses the point.
“Dead is dead. Whether you get stabbed to death with a knife or shot by some lunatic with a firearm, who shouldn’t have had it in the first place and sent all kinds of warning signals about his intentions, I’m not sure it makes all that much difference,” said Workman.
He says one thing that’s become clear in the wake of the Parkland shooting is that gun control advocates, including former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, are openly calling for a repeal of the second amendment. A federal judge has also ruled that the second amendment does not protect the right to own semi-automatic weapons.
“I think where this is going is that it’s still feeding this monster of civilian disarmament. For the gun control people to continue claiming that nobody’s coming to take your guns and nobody wants to take your guns is just a flat-out lie,” said Workman.
