UK plans to seize kitchen knives from criminals | Hacker News Reader

UK plans to seize kitchen knives from criminals

dailymail.co.uk

7 pointsquazar10 comments

The US isn't perfect, but police have long had the power to seize kitchen knives when arresting someone, and it's not at the forefront of the causes of societal collapse.

In the UK it is a criminal offence to carry a kitchen knife around and it'll get you jailed.

However, it is of course perfectly fine to keep kitchen knives in your kitchen, which is what this proposal seems to target... even if you can go to the supermarket and buy new ones at any time.

I think it's pretty reasonable that if you stab somebody in the park with a kitchen knife, then run back home, the police will be able to confiscate the knife. According to the article I just read, the UK police can't do that, although I don't know if that's actually true.

Do you believe that a murder weapon is off limits if you get home before the police catches you? (It's a rethorical question)

The way I read this article, and it's tricky because the Daily Mail is expert at spinning things their way, is that they are proposing that any knives the police does not like might be seized and destroyed if your home is searched.

Found the actual proposal:

"Proposal 2: Power to seize and retain/destroy certain bladed articles held in private if the police are in private property lawfully and they have a reasonable belief that they will be used in serious crime." [1]

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/machetes-and-oth...

The UK should just start to copy paste from 1984 into their laws. The people can not be allowed any freedom at all.

Whether you can ban guns may depend on the country -- it's not currently possible in the U.S. But I think it will be impossible to ban kitchen knives anywhere since they are so widely available and necessary. If the police confiscate knives from a criminal, he can easily get replacements if he wants.

That will be an excuse for more legislation and policing, not a reason to give up. That said, I don't think the headline here is accurate, it looks like they're talking about (lol) assault knives (if you like) and not expecting to apply this to kitchen knives. Doesn't make it less dumb.

If prisoners can make anything into a poker, or blade, or any kind of implement meant for bodily harm - removing kitchen knives from the homes of criminals will do next to nothing but further increase the grip of authoritarianism.

Before the inevitable "1984" and "Brave New World" posts start to accumulate, can I just point out that this is the "Daily Mail" ?

Commonly referred to as the "Daily Fail", this rag has roughly the gravitas of QAnon's ruminations on the geopolitical state...

The UK should totally sieze Gordon Ramsey's kitchen knives. He's swearing a lot, so he might be a criminal. /s

Reply on news.ycombinator.com