Church of England bishops have called for the re-design of kitchen knives in order to reduce knife crime in a recent letter to the Government published in The Sunday Times. Signatories to the letter also included crime and gang culture experts and MPs.
The letter referred to a five-year study in Edinburgh, which found that 94% of the sharp instruments used in homicides were kitchen knives. Suggesting that rounded ends for knives would reduce knife crime by making fatalities less likely, the letter urged the Government to “take urgent measures to promote the sale of safe kitchen knife designs and restrict those designs, which have been used in so many acts of violence.”
The signatories acknowledged that: ‘Historically, we needed a point on the end of our knife to pick up food because forks weren’t invented. Now, we only need the point to open packets when we can’t be bothered to find the scissors.’
They also wrote: “The UK has worked for the public good by restricting handguns, paracetamol, smoking in public and plastic bags – now it is time to say ‘no bloody point’.”
However some of public’s reaction via Twitter has included comments on the need for pointed knives for some food preparation as well as the ease of finding (or making) an alternative sharp weapon.
* According to statistics published by parliament last week, in the year ending March 2019, there were around 47,100 (selected) offences involving a knife or sharp instrument recorded by police in England and Wales. This is the highest number in the nine-year series of data.
Top: National Monument against Violence and Aggression, the Knife Angel – photo by T S Peters (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.). The Knife Angel –created from knives that have been handed in – has been on display outside cathedrals including Rochester and Coventry.
