I agree that we don't do enough, often enough, to stand up against changes in the law that impact and restrict us, so I want to see this thread continue, but
No Politics. So please keep the general anti-government rants to yourselves. I feel the same, but this isn't the forum for it.
Similarly, can our North American brethren please recognise that in the UK self defence is not a reason for having a knife. Rather the opposite, and posting that a restriction on knives is a restriction on your right to self defence is only likely to make British politicians feel better about tightening the laws. Not helpful.
Corso, if you live in London you are closer to a bricks and mortar knife shop than most of us outside of London. There are several in Soho and one on Baker Street, that I know of.
That is the problem that I see with this idea. When the law changed for airguns and you needed to go to a store to collect NEW airguns, there already existed a population of gun shops, all of whom were "in it together" and for whom it was in their collective interest to accept packages and allow collection. I have a feeling that they charge for this, but am not 100% sure.
What shops are there that would accept collection of mail order knives? There are no bricks and mortar knife shops, or almost none. There are kitchen shops, The Japanese Knife Shops in London...some gun shops sell knives, but mostly junk, camping shops maybe, a few bushcraft/gun shops. This is not a cohesive network. It is already hard enough, as I found, to ship knives from point A to point B, with the only carrier service being Royal Mail, but the same factors that dissuade DHL, UPS and FedEx from handling knives will surely apply to other businesses. Knives make up such a small part of the business for things like kitchen shops and camping stores that they don't really have much incentive to accept a trickle of high value, possibly dangerous, packages, for which they are then responsible to both the purchaser and the government for checking ages.
Airguns are generally pretty high value, bottom end is still over £100 and they quickly run up to £500+ territory. Most folk don't own many, hardly anyone is going to want a collection of dozens, unlike knife users. I am not a collector, yet I still have about 28 knives which I have not made myself. Maybe half of those came via the mail.
Full time makers are probably not a source of knives to criminals since the necessary waits and communications are probably unattractive, not to mention the cost, but a unilateral ban on mail order will be the end of them.
No Politics. So please keep the general anti-government rants to yourselves. I feel the same, but this isn't the forum for it.
Similarly, can our North American brethren please recognise that in the UK self defence is not a reason for having a knife. Rather the opposite, and posting that a restriction on knives is a restriction on your right to self defence is only likely to make British politicians feel better about tightening the laws. Not helpful.
Corso, if you live in London you are closer to a bricks and mortar knife shop than most of us outside of London. There are several in Soho and one on Baker Street, that I know of.
That is the problem that I see with this idea. When the law changed for airguns and you needed to go to a store to collect NEW airguns, there already existed a population of gun shops, all of whom were "in it together" and for whom it was in their collective interest to accept packages and allow collection. I have a feeling that they charge for this, but am not 100% sure.
What shops are there that would accept collection of mail order knives? There are no bricks and mortar knife shops, or almost none. There are kitchen shops, The Japanese Knife Shops in London...some gun shops sell knives, but mostly junk, camping shops maybe, a few bushcraft/gun shops. This is not a cohesive network. It is already hard enough, as I found, to ship knives from point A to point B, with the only carrier service being Royal Mail, but the same factors that dissuade DHL, UPS and FedEx from handling knives will surely apply to other businesses. Knives make up such a small part of the business for things like kitchen shops and camping stores that they don't really have much incentive to accept a trickle of high value, possibly dangerous, packages, for which they are then responsible to both the purchaser and the government for checking ages.
Airguns are generally pretty high value, bottom end is still over £100 and they quickly run up to £500+ territory. Most folk don't own many, hardly anyone is going to want a collection of dozens, unlike knife users. I am not a collector, yet I still have about 28 knives which I have not made myself. Maybe half of those came via the mail.
Full time makers are probably not a source of knives to criminals since the necessary waits and communications are probably unattractive, not to mention the cost, but a unilateral ban on mail order will be the end of them.
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