With 55 murders already this year, London’s homicide total has surpassed that of New York, a nearly 100% increase over 2017. But guns are nearly impossible to obtain, you say. How can this possibly happen? Criminals always find a way and much of this year’s jump has been due to knife and acid attacks (while some still manage to get their hands on firearms).

Social media marketing mavens and keyboard the UK’s keyboard warriors have taken up that most modern weapon in fighting against London’s spiraling crime rate: the almighty hashtag. Their weapon of choice: #knifefree. Perhaps #defenseless might have been more appropriate, but that’s neither here nor there.

Currently, Londoners caught with a knife that’s more than three inches can face up to four years in prison and an unlimited fine. There are some exceptions, such as if you’re transporting a knife you just purchased, or if you can show a need for carrying one, but good luck with that.

You might think that in a disarmed society, self defense might be a sufficient need, but you’d be wrong.

London’s Mayor, Sadiq Khan, former chairman of the National Council for Liberty (the Brit equivalent of the ACLU), has done what every politician does when they don’t know how to tackle a problem. He’s appointed a committee. In this case, a 120-member violent crime task force he’s charged with tackling the city’s murder problem.

The one-time civil liberties advocate is also adding 300 more duty officers to the Metropolitan Police Service who will be charged with performing “targeted” stop-and-search operations designed to root out knife carriers.

As Mr. Khan tweeted:

Basically the Mayor, a former civil rights “leader/lawyer,” wants to expand the application of random searches and enforcement of policies that are clearly not working. While that may sound like a joke (Mr. Khan’s did try his hand as a stand-up comedian, after all) there’s nothing funny about the situation to disarmed London citizens whose lives are at stake.

As with all prohibition efforts, the #knifefree campaign will prove about as effective as the war on drugs or an assault weapons ban did on this side of the pond. And allowing Londoners to exercise their (nonexistent) right to defend themselves against criminals who know their victims can’t fight back will never occur to Khan or anyone else in a position of authority.

 

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86 COMMENTS

  1. No, this is what happens to a brainwashed populace who trades their freedom for three squares a day and a weekly soccer match.

    • No, this is what happens to a populace when you have a Libertarian open borders policy. You invite people into your society who don’t believe in your nations freedoms. They in fact reject the concept of Liberty out right.

      • Open border is NOT a libertarian policy. That’s an influence of far leftists (socialists) polluting the libertarian movement.

        The only way open borders would work in a libertarian society is if the state provided ZERO benefits to the people, and required ZERO contributions from them.

        But as long as people are compelled to pay taxes, they ABSOLUTELY have the right to limit who has access the benefits those taxes have purchased.

        🙂

  2. God help them if they ever find out about scissors or pens or pencils or keys or can lids or nails or screwdrivers or literally any fucking thing on the planet.

    Just cut out the middle man and start lopping off hands London. Claim everyone is a thief and Sharia the shit out of their limbs.

    • I take it you’ve never heard of the Twitter hashtag #weaponsweep? It regularly features UK police proudly displaying the kitchen knives, weeding claws, safety scissors, rubber mallets, etc. that they’ve “taken off the streets.”

      • Oh, I’ve seen it. It usually looks like the British PoPo have been digging through the dumpster behind a harbor freight store. I’ve begun to wonder if anyone in GB has any decent tools. How do they build anything over there?

        • They build firetrap plastic clad high rise ghettos guaranteed to kill everyone trapped in them once a fire starts. One method of population control.

    • Funny thing is, that sharia does not seem to prohibit owning and carrying weapons. There are hadiths about the Prophet advising not to point at one another and sheath the blades, spearheads or arrowheads when carrying them on the streets, to avoid accidental injuries. I guess open carry was really popular back then and early medieval Arabs were more sensible than British chavs.
      Also Muhammad seems like pro Second Amendment dude, himself having respectable quantity of weapons and armor in the house – 8 swords, 5 spears, 6 bows etc. I imagine how pleased he would be to listen to Sadiq Khan urging him to become #knifefree, #swordfree or #whateverfree . Only wonder, if honorable mayor could run fast enough to avoid prophetic retort.

      • He was a warlord in an era of “might makes right” and an overall murder rate somewhere north of 40.

        You can be sure he didn’t support the carrying of weapons by the people he’s conquered, just his own privileged followers.

        • That is another issue – no conquerors will be willing to let potential foes or mutineers to go armed in their territory, whatever they may be – “Barbarians”, “Wogs”, “Injuns” and so on. I dont want to guess what category the common british subjects fall into, in the eyes of their own officials, which, after all, are not foreign invaders. Or am I wrong and they still have these Norman – Saxon problems in the Isles?

    • “No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife… ”

      Wow, I guess all those daily uses I have for my belt knife and folder are all in my mind. Not sure how I’m going to accomplish the things I use a knife for in my daily activities, maybe titanium Jaws teeth? I must have been using the wrong tool.

      I suppose if you are an urban, latte-drinking, pajama wearing wanker, you might not have a ‘need for a knife’, nor a need for a brain, it appears.

      • Well, that’s exactly what it is. Go to San Francisco and you’ll probably hear the same sentiment. Post adolescent males with soft, manicured hands who’d cry and run to a safe space if you even SUGGESTED they get their hands dirty. Pathetic!

  5. And what of the perps who committed attacks (of any kind, weapon used shouldn’t matter)? Were they given a slap on the wrist? Are the murderers hanging by the neck until dead, or just taking a couple years off between crime sprees?

      • England and Wales have an impressive conviction rate. London? I don’t know, but probably compared to places in America like Baltimore, Chicago, and St. Louis.

  6. A 120-member committee?

    Best be careful, it’ll be in danger of becoming a Senate. Then there’s no limit to the damage it can do…

      • +1… I’m sure the committee, in studying “knife crime”, will come to the conclution that: 1) the police are racist and homophobic, 2) schools in “at risk communities” need more funding, 3) more money needs to go to women’s health research, and, 4) government needs better transient people outreach programs.

    • A committee is just a way of kicking the can down the road. A 120 member committee is a guarantee that nothing will ever be decided or achieved. But who pays for it? It is really just an admission of mayoral stupidity.

  7. There is no reason to carry a knife. Ever. Nobody should ever have to open a packing box. And if you need to trim a fingernail… we have doctors for that.
    Next up; the pointy stick and rock possession task force. Because there is never any reason for a sheeple to possess anything. In fact, I have another great idea, a ban on pockets! Without pockets, no sheep can ever conceal anything! I’m a genius.
    Khan

    • No one should be strong either. No reason to bench 350 lbs or curl 120. If everyone walking around is a weakling except for police that should stop assaults

      • You ever try to fight a mob of pygmies? 10 little dudes still equal 1200 lbs of human. That would crush anybody….. which means after we place “reasonable restrictions” on the 2nd ammendment, we would obviously need to place “reasonable restrictions” on the 1st to stop high capacity assault congregations.

    • Hence the drive by the gay mafia and assorted worthless celebrities to try to persuade every one to go gay, which will have the social “benefits” of making us all limp wristed and wearing dresses without pockets to contain any weapons or sharp objects, and therefore malleable subjects for the authorities to rule more effectively. No other explanation makes sense. Gays are only about 5% of the population, but number up to 50% in large cities, so they assume that the other 50% will get with the programme. Not this citizen. Not ever. I still have pockets, and they will contain whatever objects, sharp or otherwise, that I deem necessary in my daily travails. No offence to any gay people of my acquaintance, but no sale.

  8. Poor defenseless Londoners. Mr Khan would do better being a comedian. Or should I say still is & just doesn’t know it. This is laughable. Next on the agenda will be anyone caught with a screwdriver , longer than 3″ I would not want to reside in London. I live in the U.S.A. where we have a bill of rights , the constitution . more to follow in the future !! If we have one.

  9. It’s happening right NOW , as Bloomberg groups flood every state house with pearl clutching demands to DISARM everybody ….. because reasons.

    The Pennsylvania anti gun hearings are a complete shit show !
    A non stop parade of democrats who say …. ” PASS this new law , new harasment of lawful gun owners ,Pass MORE Fees , TAXES , PERMITS for everything , Pass this DELAY of Due-Process …… all with very little Republican rebuttal.

    Proposed laws and updates at — Firearm Owners Against Crime . dot . org

  13. #knifefree, you mean #toolfree, or #rightsfree? …on top of #defenseless and #clueless, for us n Hizzhonor, already?

  14. Maybe they should outlaw violence, that should do it. Ole Kahn is disarming the brits to be easy marks for the islamists.

    • Brits have been disarmed a long time; try carrying ANY implement for the specific purpose of self-defense in any British-Commonwealth country (UK, Canada, etc.).

      • That’s the real problem in a nutshell — in pursuit of peace, they’ve effectively banned self-defense (which was never the problem).

        Evil exists, and it gains most of its power from people with good intentions and poor thinking skills.

  16. I carry a knife every day. A good one. After all, it was the first tool man invented so it must be important. When I used to go to the Bahamas to fish and dive it was the only weapon I could get into the country. A Spyderco/Tim Wegner collaboration. Came in handy one night when some asswipe tried to set up my wife I for a mugging. When he saw that blade he decided he had other places to be. Before retiring I saw many gunshot wounds and two men disembowled by knives. (Plenty of stabbing,too.) Those guys with their intestines on top of their shoes was by far the most gruesome. To paraphrase; in the land of no guns, the man with a knife is king. Khan is dreaming if he thinks his heavy handed tactics will make any difference. Oh! You can do plenty of damage with a three inch blade.

  17. “…situation to disarmed London citizens whose lives are at stake…”

    I hate to edit a fellow TTAG writer, but there’s a glaring problem with that phrase. It should be like this:

    “…situation to disarmed London subjects whose lives are at stake…”

    See, doesn’t that make much more sense?

    • Yeah, it’s not like they live in a constitutional republic. They live in a “constitutional” monarchy. I use the scare quotes because they don’t have a constitution.

    • “Let’s not forget that this is the mayor that has thrown in the towel on terrorism. After all, according to him, it’s just “part and parcel of living in a big city””

      We need to use the same tactic.

      Occasional mass shootings are part and parcel to living in a free society.

      Throw it back into their faces, Alinsky style. Force them to live by their own rules…

    • He’s not wrong in that those who want to target masses of people with violence will often find it advantageous to do their violence where people are massed. Especially if said people-massing-zone is a self-defense-free zone. Recognizing that reality is hardly “throwing in the towel”.

  20. This is typical Liberal tactics: Double down when what you have done has already failed. They can’t deal with the fact that government can’t solve every problem or effectively protect the populace by passing new laws.
    This approach fails because only law abiding people follow laws, criminals don’t follow laws, and the criminals know the law abiding follow the law, which makes criminals more likely to use their advantage to victimize the law abiding.
    Hence the more laws you make the more criminal activity there is.
    If they really cared about the safety of their people they would empower them to be able to protect themselves, but what they really care about is have control over others.

  21. Simple solution would be to shackle all Londoners hands to their sides on a belt so that they are incapable of performing a “stabbing motion”. Problem solved!

  22. This is Wed. morning gold. I had to stop reading the comments because I was laughing so hard.

  23. Thought 1: And you thought making a gun was easy.

    Thought 2: I have a novel solution. Recognize the human right of self defense.

  25. That’s what they get for their mass muzzy migration and electing a muzzy mayor.

    “Oh shut up, silly woman!” said the reptile with a grin. “You knew d**n well I was a snake before you took me in!”

    • LOL, the Brits have been disarmed subjects long before this mayor.

      And their muzzies are fellow subjects of their own British Commonwealth (e.g., Pakistan); they didn’t “take in” anyone.

      • Right, it’s the rest of Europe that takes in illiterate, violent young Muslim male migrants and gives them handouts better than what they give their own people. Even without the pakis and jihadis you still have plenty of chavs and hooligans.

        • Right, it’s the rest of Europe that takes in illiterate, violent young Muslim male migrants and gives them handouts better than what they give their own people.
          Heart of the problem.

  27. So very much a lost cause, the Brits. My company has offices there. A few months back, doing some rare real work (I’m a project mangler) I was opening boxes and lamented, upon reaching for my pocket for the thirtieth time, how I missed my pocket knife and asked for scissors.

    “A pocket knife? AT WORK?!? Someone could get hurt!”

    I replied by saying that someone could just as easily use a laptop to kill someone else, and that indeed I do carry a pocket knife at work. The looks I got were as if I’d whipped out Mr. Happy…

  28. In all honesty — let me be frank about this — I don’t give a rat’s hat what happens to the English.

    • Indeed. Every time some overseas busybody chimes in to deride America for its gun culture (I read “freedom culture”, but maybe that’s not fair), I think to myself: “What’s it to you, bub?”

      I suppose, to be consistent, I aught not care too much about their side of the world either.

  29. I wonder if this campaign will be a successful as sad-faced Michelle Obama’s #BringBackOurGirls. ‘Memba that? Poor, poor Mooch standing in front of the camera with her silly little sign looking like someone just ran over Bo the Portuguese Water Dog with a vintage Chris-Craft.

    Sniff. I’m getting all choked up just thinking about it.

  30. hollywood made a movie about what happens when only the military and police have guns…

    its called SCHINDLERS LIST

  32. America needs mayors named Saddick Khan, congressmen with names like Ahfardsohard Ikrapmahjamezz and presidents named Barrack Hussain Achtooey. No more of this Washington, Hamilton stuff.

    • For now it has sufficient number of the lawyers, journalists, artists and congressmen with the names sounding like “Weinstein” or “Feinstein”. I doubt they are in dire need of reinforcements.

  33. “No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife”

    Uh, what? How about if I have to cut a cheesecake? Or stab a motherf#$%er?

  34. How can this possibly happen?
    Unlimited Fuzzy Muzzies?
    Fuzzy Muzzy Mayor?
    Thought Police?
    Big Brother?
    Sharia Stuff?
    IngSoc?

  35. Sent a version from another forum, to my brother-in-law. His comment was, “Proves gun control works”. When I challenged that the goal should be reduction in crime, he responded that so long as guns are not involved, he is OK with the crime rates.

    And we want to debate people like this?

    • Not to piss the wife off or nothing, but did you ever want to kick that guy in the nutz?

  37. The U.K. is the world’s largest group home for the developmentally disabled, surrounded by the world’s deepest moat.

    • Speaking as someone whose ancestors left Mother England long, long ago never to return, there is a good argument that the only people in Britain with any balls got off their arses and shipped out to the colonies for a better life; and the insufferable pricks who remained made it their life’s work to destroy any vestige of dignity and common sense left for the remainder. You get what you fight for. If you don’t fight, this is what you get.

  38. I wouldn’t worry to much about guns and knives. I’d worry about all the self generating gas fired incinerator plants that are cropping up everywhere. They produce their own power and they have high speed heavy duty conveyor type systems capable of handling any type of dead matter. All this other stuff is nothing more than a distraction!

  39. Why stop at knives? Let’s just have everybody walk around with their hand taped closed, and pockets turned out? There is freedom in abject defenselessness, is there not?

    Freaking idiots.

  40. Disarmed by their complicit muslim mayor. Hahaha! You need to remember that if they come for your guns in force, a lot of things are worse than death.

  41. This is actually really funny, in a pathetic, Liberal way. So . . . people aren’t allowed to carry knives, and presumably it will soon be nearly impossible to buy any sort of hunting or outdoor utility knife in London. Okay . . . great., That will certainly ensure that law abiding people are defenseless, but if someone wants to commit mayhem they aren’t going to worry about the law. They are going to pick up the beef carving knife and go out and kill people. This is a perfect example of Liberal wishful thinking.

  42. First it was guns. Soon it will be knives. Then sticks and stones that can break your bones.

    Eventually, they will start cutting off everybody’s hands, because people will be killing each other with their bare hands. Such idiocy.

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