Posted on 05/26/2005 7:26:25 PM PDT by aculeus
"Britain in the grip of knives terror—third of murder victims are now stabbed to death." Daily Express, 31 January 2005
"Stabbing rampage kills one, injures five—a large kitchen knife was found." Independent, 24 December 2004
Violent crime in the United Kingdom is increasing; figures from London show a 17.9% increase from 2003 to 2004,1 and one easily accessible weapon used in many incidents is the kitchen knife. Unfortunately, no data seem to have been collected to indicate how often kitchen knives are used in stabbings, but our own experience and that of police officers and pathologists we have spoken to indicates that they are used in at least half of all cases. UK government statistics show that 24% of 16 year old boys report carrying knives or other weapons and 19% admitting attacking someone with the intent to harm.2 Although other weapons—such as baseball bats, screwdrivers, and chains—are also carried, by far the most common weapons are knives.3 In the United Kingdom in the first two weeks of 2005 alone, 15 murders were attributed to stabbings and 16 other non-fatal attacks.4
To tackle this increasing problem, various measures are being considered by the government, particularly targeting the adolescent age group. These include raising the minimum age for purchasing a knife from 16 to 18 years and allowing head teachers the power to search pupils for knives.5 However, not all crimes are committed with newly purchased knives, and every household and home economics department in schools contains a plethora of readily available weapons. The modern stainless steel kitchen knife has a high quality blade that makes it unnecessary to look further for another lethal weapon.
Most domestic kitchen knives are based on two designs, the dagger variety with a pointed tip—for example, vegetable knife or carving knife—and the blunt round nose variety—for example, bread knife. When using a knife to harm, a blunt nosed knife is unlikely to cause serious injury, as penetrating clothing and skin is difficult with it. Similarly an assault with a knife with a short blade such as a craft knife may cause a dramatic superficial wound but is unlikely to reach deep structures and cause death. A dagger type knife, however, can penetrate deeply. Once resistance from clothing and skin is overcome, little extra force is required to injure vital organs, increasing the chance of a fatality (likened to cutting into a ripe melon).6
As knives are so readily available, does a culinary reason exist for so many domestic knives to be of the dagger variety, or are we just sticking to tradition? Knives as we recognise them were made first from copper and bronze between 3000 and 700 bc, and some are very similar in design to those used today. Personal eating knives were first used in Britain in the 14th century and became commonplace during the 1800s when manufacturing processes improved.7
Knives were used to spear meat, lifting it from plate to mouth, so pointed tips were vital for this function. Also, with repeated sharpening of a flat blade, a pointed tip inevitably develops. However, now domestic knives do not need sharpening, and numerous other kitchen utensils can be used to spear food. The current practice of eating with forks and blunt ended table knives was introduced in the 18th century to reduce the injuries resulting from arguments in public eating houses. In 1669, King Louis XIV of France noted the association between pointed domestic knives and violence and passed a law demanding that the tips of all table and street knives be ground smooth.8 Today many households have a block of kitchen knives of which several will be of the long pointed variety.
Perhaps the pointed kitchen knife has a culinary purpose that we have failed to appreciate? We contacted 10 chefs in the UK who are well known from their media activities and chefs working in the kitchens of five leading London restaurants. Some commented that a point is useful in the fine preparation of some meat and vegetables, but that this could be done with a short pointed knife (less than 5 cm in length). None gave a reason why the long pointed knife was essential. Domestic knife manufacturers (Harrison-Fisher Knife Company, England, personal communication, 2005) admit that their designs are based on traditional shapes and could give no functional reason why long pointed knives are needed. The average life of a kitchen knife is estimated to be about 10 years.
Many assaults are impulsive, often triggered by alcohol or misuse of other drugs, and the long pointed kitchen knife is an easily available potentially lethal weapon particularly in the domestic setting. Government action to ban the sale of such knives would drastically reduce their availability over the course of a few years. In addition, such legislation would make it harder to justify carrying such knives and prosecution easier.
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.
Emma Hern, specialist registrar in emergency medicine, Will Glazebrook, specialist registrar in emergency medicine Mike Beckett, consultant in emergency medicine
West Middlesex University Hospital, London TW7 6AF (emmah@doctors.org.uk)
Competing interests: None declared.
References
Metropolitan Police Service. Latest crime figures for London. www.met.police.uk/crimefigures/(accessed 20 Jan 2005).
Beinart S, Anderson B, Lee S, Utting D: Youth at risk? A national survey of risk factors, protective factors and problem behaviour among young people in England, Scotland and Wales. London, Communities that Care, 2002, JRF Findings 432.
Townsend M, Barnett A. Children of five who carry knives in class. Observer 2003, November 23. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1091441,00.html (accessed 21 Apr 2005)
BBC News Online (manual search). http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgibin/search/results.pl?scope=newsukfs&tab=news&q=stabbings (accessed 20 Jan 2005).
Home Office. Off the streets and out of schools: Home Secretary's fight against knives. Press Release 389/2004. 15 December 2004.
www.homeoffice.gov.uk/n_story.asp?item_id=1188 (accessed 30 Mar 2005).
Sadler D. Injuries of medico-legal importance. Lecture notes for LLB in Forensic Medicine, University of Dundee. www.Dundee.ac.uk/forensicmedicine/llb/woundsdws.htm#stabs (accessed 20 Jan 05).
The Sheffield cutlery industry. http://freespace.virgin.net/a.data/The%20History%20of%20Cutlery.htm (accessed 20 Jan 2005). Knives. http://www.eat-online.net/english/education/utensils/knives.htm
(accessed 20 Jan 2005).
© 2005 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
No pointed sticks?
Not a very surprising conclusion given that those who wrote it are a couple of NHS specialist registrars and a consultant in emergency medicine. To expect them to use common sense and real-world logic to critically analyse their suggestion would be too much.
Many assaults are impulsive, often triggered by alcohol or misuse of other drugs, and the long pointed kitchen knife is an easily available potentially lethal weapon particularly in the domestic setting.
Right, so cutting someone's throat would be impossible with a short bladed knife, or a long bladed blunt-ended knife would it?
Government action to ban the sale of such knives would drastically reduce their availability over the course of a few years. In addition, such legislation would make it harder to justify carrying such knives and prosecution easier.
We already have strict laws banning the carrying of such knives in public places and the government is likely to bring in a minimum prison sentence of 4 years for carrying a knife for offensive purposes soon. Also, the authors of this article may not realise this, but apart from the many millions of long pointed kitchen knives already out there, if their proposed law was passed then it would still be rather easy to convert a long bladed blunt-ended kitchen knife into its illegal cousin rather easily with a grinder or some other simple metal working tool. Or do they intend to ban metal working tools too?
The way to deal with those who commit GBH with knives is to give them a minimum of 15 years hard labour IMHO and murderers should receive the death penalty. That would deter the perpetrators of knife crime.
BTW, anyone who wants to post a reply on the BMJ website to this ridiculous article can do so here. (Although, it would help if you are an AMA registered medic).
LOL
Let's not forget the 15 day waiting period for a background investigation and state approval of the Cricket Bat License.
LOL! you were lucky. People often go to a Soccer game and a WAR breaks out.
I missed that part by a few years, but I do remember the parents were, are and will likely always be, the major source of entertainment as well as violence at their children's youth games, regardless of the sport.
I'm not suprised that the kids have learned to relax with refreshments and just enjoy what has always been the main event.
and they've figured out how to give the bill to the parents.
for that matter then none of us should even post 'cause they ain't going to listen to us anyway. Looks like we will just have to close FR becaue it all is so wasted.
Spouting off is good for our blood pressure and mental health, so for that reason alone keeping Free Republic going strong, is important to us all. Besides that, pissing off liberals is a wonderfully relaxing and rewarding passtime.
I was just kidding about nobody taking me seriously anyway-why I've even had people take my puns seriously and my seriousity as puns. (seriousity-a little GWB lingo there)
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