noticed something today!

[Dan1982]

was in my local army surplus today and whilst having a look around i saw the gentlemen behind the counter sell a large buck knife to a scally in a tracksuit. now obviously he could have been buying it for perfectly legitimate reasons and i would be wrong to judge on appearances. however if it was me i would have had serious doubts as to what the knife was to be used for. i appreciate the fact that the business needs to make money and that 'said' scally could easily aquire a knife from any number of places but should there be a more stringent screening process when selling knives over the counter?? should it be at the discretion of the retailer maybe??

i dunno.... it just struck me as a bit odd thats all!!

Anyway, rant over!!

Dan

 

[Bushcraft4life]

Personally, i would have pulled the bloke up for it, but most retailers nowadays don't care either way as long as they get their money.

Did he look 18?

 

[Barn Owl]

In my area a lot of the boys who hunt and fish do so in their shellsuits

It's hard to judge a book by its cover,I know a lot of 'junkie' types who fish etc, to try and help them keep off drugs and they need to take a 'priest' and knife then.

There's no easy answers, though i know my local sellers do have a strict selling policy(so they tell me).

 

[stooboy]

Meh, I dont think you should read to much into peoples appearance, Id agree that it plays a significant role in the way people regard you, i should probably wear shirt and tie to the office but id rather wear combats, jeans, t-shirt as I feel more comfortable and relaxed in them.

My sister for example pointed out a homeless guy the other day and said "oh i hate to see that, you can tell hes come from money and fell on hard times" the reason being that he had on relatively good trench coat and trousers or something, I on the other hand, argued that perhaps the clothes had been donated via salvation army by wealth business ppl with to many clothes, you can read thing many ways.

would you have had concern had the same person been buying a large kitchen knife from homebase and some bored check out clerk randomly beep it through.

I think though that had there been blatant wrong doing i.e. under age or whatever then it should be brought to the attention of the authorities.

As soon as you start discriminating against chavs, where does it stop? Folding knife licenses ? 15" blade owners license, legitmite proof of ownership for application etc?

Pitty the society we live in where the bad actions of a few penalize the many. With knife crime on the rise, i can see knife selling being more restricted in the future.

Stoo

 

[crazyclimber]

Dan I can kinda see where you're coming from on this, but turning it around, a quick scenario; you walk into a shop after a hard day at work, unshaven (you've pulled an all nighter), tired and slightly irritable. Does the shop assistant think 'Jesus, I wonder if he's going to go kill someone', or do they think, 'he looks stressed, a good bushcrafting weekend using this should do him good'. See my point? Having worked in retail, behind the tills and in management I'm therefore really not in favour of the 'shopkeepers discretion' idea.

There is also the point that, after all, what is a knife? It's a sharp piece of steel. You could stab someone just as easily with a screwdriver... should DIY stores also come into this?

No easy solutions I'm afraid

 

[John Fenna]

No need for new knife legislation - just enforce what we already have!
Or are the authorities worried that they might be coming up against their own "human rights" legislation if they do stop people from buying/owning/carrying blades?
It has long been the law that you are not allowed to stab/slash/threaten someone with a knife/screwdriver/pointy bit of scrap metal - what more legislation do you need?

 

[Tadpole]

No need for new knife legislation - just enforce what we already have!
Or are the authorities worried that they might be coming up against their own "human rights" legislation if they do stop people from buying/owning/carrying blades?
It has long been the law that you are not allowed to stab/slash/threaten someone with a knife/screwdriver/pointy bit of scrap metal - what more legislation do you need?

I've give you rep if i could... We have more than enough laws to stop people cutting each other with sharp and pointy things, back a few months a 16 old girl scarred a class mate for life with the 20mm blade taken from a 60p pencil sharpener. No one is going to stop selling pencil sharpeners, or stanley Knives, (the 'weapon' of choice in the Bristol area. it seems)

 

[Jedadiah]

There was a segment on the 'One show' the other night (hmmm Christine Bleakly) about a young girl going into shops in Manchester and asking to buy knives. They were (initially) kitchen knives, but after a while she went for the old Rambo Hunting knives. She was 16 years old and it was quite obvious that she was under age. 60% of the shops she went into sold her a knife or two without blinking!

As has been said before, enforcement is the way forward, not knee jerk policy and legislation.

 

[Tadpole]

There was a segment on the 'One show' the other night (hmmm Christine Bleakly) about a young girl going into shops in Manchester and asking to buy knives. They were (initially) kitchen knives, but after a while she went for the old Rambo Hunting knives. She was 16 years old and it was quite obvious that she was under age. 60% of the shops she went into sold her a knife or two without blinking!

As has been said before, enforcement is the way forward, not knee jerk policy and legislation.

It is my understanding that 16 year olds can buy knives, providing that a it is of the folding type and b its sharp edge is under 3 inches, has this law been changed?

1. This Order may be cited as the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Exemption) Order 1996 and shall come into force on 1st January 1997.
2. Section 141A(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (sale of knives or certain articles with blade or point to persons under sixteen) shall not apply to —
(a) a folding pocket-knife if the cutting edge of its blade does not exceed 7.62 centimetres (3 inches).

Ok a Rambo knife doesn’t fit in to that category.

 

[FerlasDave]

some chav waved his stanley blade at me and said something about shank a few months back on my way home.

so i showed him my bowie and said 'i dont know what shank is, and i hope for your sakes your not going to try and show me'.

he ran off of course.... never to be seen again.

 

[crazyclimber]

some chav waved his stanley blade at me and said something about shank a few months back on my way home.

so i showed him my bowie and said 'i dont know what shank is, and i hope for your sakes your not going to try and show me'.

he ran off of course.... never to be seen again.

Croc. Dundee: "That's not a knife. THIS is a knife"

 

[Jedadiah]

It is my understanding that 16 year olds can buy knives, providing that a it is of the folding type and b its sharp edge is under 3 inches, has this law been changed?

1. This Order may be cited as the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Exemption) Order 1996 and shall come into force on 1st January 1997.
2. Section 141A(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (sale of knives or certain articles with blade or point to persons under sixteen) shall not apply to —
(a) a folding pocket-knife if the cutting edge of its blade does not exceed 7.62 centimetres (3 inches).

Ok a Rambo knife doesn’t fit in to that category.

They were a fair old size, big slicers not your paring blade. Maybe it was just a media thing trying to highlight the 'under 18' thing that is big at the moment. What you've just said just means that i'm going to have to hunt Chritine Blakley down and 'Punish' her!

 

[deeps]

About 18 months ago I was grubbing around in a surplus place in Bristol when in walk a group of streetwise gang members from St Pauls who proceed to kit themselves out with ex Police anti-stab vests. Having bought them they put them on in the shop under their clothing and departed.

Reckoned this was a bit suspicious and called it through to police who couldn't have been less interested. Ah well...

 

[Tengu]

They would look like my Bouncer mates to me.

 

[stooboy]

They would look like my Bouncer mates to me.

Yes perhaps a large contingent of out of town football fans arrived in the city most of which without tickets, local police advised the pubs to put on extra door staff, and not wanting to take any chances the security manager took his squad to the local surplus shop before the shift to get additonal safety wear in what can be a tough and risky job....

 

[tomtom]

This really isn't within what we talk about with regard to edged tools and it certainly has nothing to do with bushcraft.

Thread locked.