Licensing for Knife Sellers or Importers

[Kiri]

Today the Government has launched a consultation about licensing sellers and importers of knives:

Licensing for knife sales (accessible)

www.gov.uk

The high points are:

It will apply to private individuals as well as businesses.

It will apply to second hand sales.

It will apply to you buying from overseas retailers.

There will be vetting.

There will be a fee (renewable every 3 years).


If you care, please complete the consultation, consider writing to your MP and share with other groups you think might be interested.

 

[hughtrimble]

Thank you for raising awareness of this Kiri. What a potential minefield.

 

[dwardo]

Thanks. Filled out.

 

[Souledman]

Not to go too tangential, but I didn’t realise we already need a license to do this in Scotland https://www.gov.uk/find-licences/knife-dealers-licence-scotland

But with a bit more digging it seems private sales exempt.

 

[bobnewboy]

Good Lord, whatever next?

 

[abilou]

Interesting, but flawed from the start I suspect. In 30 years of Policing in central London I cannot remember more than a couple of knives being found by me. (Pen knives were not bothered with) There is undoubtedly a problem but you do have to look at who is stabbing who and the reasons behind why the stabbing/ attack occurred. To be fair firearms are still used but not quite as prolific as they were so knives must be easier to obtain, but I would prefer to see more rigid policing with targeted stop and search which again can become more of a problem depending on the community involved. As for tracing the knife back to a dealer, I cannot see how this will work without serial numbers. Of course the big problem is the huge number of knives already in circulation!

 

[GreyCat]

Completed.

Bats**t crazy idea it is.

GC

 

[slowworm]

Good Lord, whatever next?

It looks like it's doing the ground work for a knife licencing system.

I wonder what small scale private sellers will do, I expect the cost for a licence will not be cheap.

 

[bobnewboy]

It looks like it's doing the ground work for a knife licencing system.

I wonder what small scale private sellers will do, I expect the cost for a licence will not be cheap.

They will go out of business, which is presumably the intention of this intended legislation. As pointed out earlier, these items are effectively untraceable, and with a huge existing base there’s no way of knowing who supplied what or when.

The consultation seems like a knee-jerk attempt to show that the gov are ‘doing something’ about knife crime, but it is doomed to fail at all levels.

In the end it’s people that hurt other people, not tools. People who want to do such things won’t be taking any notice of this proposed legislation in any case and will continue as usual. Why not use stop and search without fear or favour? How long before these people start using sharpened sticks on each other ?

 

[slowworm]

The consultation seems like a knee-jerk attempt to show that the gov are ‘doing something’ about knife crime, but it is doomed to fail at all levels.

I agree with you but I expect it will be brought in, ignoring the majority of replies just like the other consultations.

By private sellers I mean individuals, not businesses. As I read it, if I wanted to sell or even give away something like an old billhook I would need to be registered and pay a hefty fee? So, many law abiding folk will just dispose of stuff.

 

[Laurentius]

I agree with you but I expect it will be brought in, ignoring the majority of replies just like the other consultations.

By private sellers I mean individuals, not businesses. As I read it, if I wanted to sell or even give away something like an old billhook I would need to be registered and pay a hefty fee? So, many law abiding folk will just dispose of stuff.

Like a lot of bad laws most people will simply ignore, them, when did anyone every buy a CB license back in the day?

 

[hughtrimble]

I agree with you but I expect it will be brought in, ignoring the majority of replies just like the other consultations.

By private sellers I mean individuals, not businesses. As I read it, if I wanted to sell or even give away something like an old billhook I would need to be registered and pay a hefty fee? So, many law abiding folk will just dispose of stuff.

And you can bet the licence fee won't scale with the business e.g. Heinnie vs Amazon. It opens the doors to another means of stifling competition, with small fry gradually priced out of the market.

 

[EdS]

Back to broken bottles and hammers for your bit of thuggary then.

Maybe even a bike chain.

That takes me back

 

[slowworm]

I expect criminals will carry on as normal, buying them from the ever growing black market or stealing them. My first thought when I read through the consultation was would someone who makes a mistake selling knife be treated worse than someone who shoplifts one or nicks one in a burglary?

 

[TLM]

Just wondering if licensing includes kitchen knives and without that I do not see how the idea would help in knife crime.

 

[Aristotle]

Just wondering if licensing includes kitchen knives and without that I do not see how the idea would help in knife crime.

Kitchen knives and tools will presumably be included.

It seems quite ridiculous.

 

[Herman30]

Back to broken bottles and hammers for your bit of thuggary then.

I would look at a sharpened bikespoke with a handle of jesustape.

 

[HorseGuy]

Kitchen knives and tools will presumably be included.

It seems quite ridiculous.

This strikes me as government trying to treat a symptom rather than looking at fixing the underlying cause of a problem. What next? Will they'll ban sticks and rocks soon too?

 

[Falstaff]

This strikes me as government trying to treat a symptom rather than looking at fixing the underlying cause of a problem. What next? Will they'll ban sticks and rocks soon too?

They all ready have banned sticks and rocks!

 

[GreyCat]

It's a stupid and futile exercise, job creation for the civil service. The mentality of those persons who consider this seriously enough to start a consultation is difficult to comprehend.

Fact is, they cannot stop illegal drugs coming into the UK, nor can they stop illegal drugs being transported around via "county lines" gangs. So the idea that they will stop knives coming in and being used for criminal purposes is in la la land, especially as there's probably quite a correlation between illegal drug sellers and users of knives for criminal purposes......

All this will do is penailse (and p**s off) the normal law-abiding citizen. No doubt the requirement will only be enforced on the same compliant people too, whilst the crims and those who have blades for "cultural" purposes will have a blind eye turned- just as with the effective decriminalisation of shoplifting.

I expect criminals will carry on as normal, buying them from the ever growing black market or stealing them. My first thought when I read through the consultation was would someone who makes a mistake selling knife be treated worse than someone who shoplifts one or nicks one in a burglary?

Yes, I fully expect that if this bonkers idea goes through, selling grandad's old folding pocket knife to a mate of a few quid will attract a stiff sentence "to set an example" whereas the crim who shoplifts/steals a knife will be ignored.... I wonder, will the old tradition of giving a copper coin in exchange for the gift of a knife be classed as "selling..."

Coming soon, the cash black market in knives......

This idea is so mad that if it was 1 April I'd think this was a joke, but unfortunately it's not.

GC