Guns and sharp steel are tricky to manufacture compared to a cosh, which could be as simple as an athletic sock with a few rolls of shillings in it. But by calling it a "culture" I guess they hope to shame people into avoiding it.
The real shame is how they even dumbed-down the common pocket knife so that most ordinary American ones are now considered "assault knives" over there, and can no longer be imported. And pols over there are now lecturing professional chefs and ordinary housewives on "you don't need a kitchen knife that big to cook with, unless you get a permit."
No kidding. I thought some of the reports I'd heard were maybe stretching things a bit... But no... I looked up some UK government sites for their knife laws... And they're just nuts. Perhaps worst of all, -any- lock back knife is illegal. That's just stupid, and unsafe. A folding knife is legal as long as it is less than 3" and has no lock. So... About the only legal pocket knives are a few of the smaller Swiss Army models. Your basic Buck 110 folder is illegal as it is an "offensive weapon". Ludicrous.
Under these rules even a Leatherman Wave multi tool is an offensive weapon, only because the blades lock open-- without which most folders are decidedly less safe.
Australia has some goofy rules too. An Aussie colleague of mine nearly jumped out of his skin one day when I -snicked- my assisted opener CRKT one day...just to open a box or something. He couldn't wrap his head around the idea that such a thing was perfectly legal. Well... Legal in my home state anyway. I'm not sure about California, where we were at the time. :-)