"War on Knives"

[BigShot]

Sky 1 will be running a series called "War on Knives" this month and are asking people to contact them.
It might be worth contacting them with some intelligent comments from responsible knife users so we can make an attempt to avoid being tarred with the same brush as the thugs who take steak and kitchen knives out with the intent of using them on people.

It's probably going to be a real smear job (as if the title didn't give that away) which, I imagine, will include demands for more restrictive laws and penalties for anyone carrying a knife - at very least I imagine it will come down badly against younger knife users.

The page on the Sky 1 website mentions the number of murders in London so far this year, without mentioning that the numbers have actually fallen since last year. (for example, Jan to June 2007 had 175 murders in london - in the same period this year there were 154 [these numbers include non-knife murders]) expect some slanted "epidemic" hysteria - removed from the facts.
An interesting article on the crime trends can be found here: http://www.bushcraftuk.com/index.php/Latest-News/Shocking-crime-figures.html

The email address is at the bottom of the following quote and also on the page I've linked to.

Here's the synopsis as found at:
http://sky1.sky.com/war-on-knives-sky1-on-the-front-line

War on Knives is a series of hard-hitting programmes on Sky1 and we want to hear from you.

Every hour there is a knife related incident in Britain. This year in London alone there have been 25 deaths. It needs to stop.

We are on the frontline with the Police and on the streets hearing from those affected by this crime wave that is sweeping our streets.

Some of the biggest celebrities and household names are lending their voices to this nationwide campaign. What do you think needs to be done?

- How do we get knives off our streets?

- Would you shop someone in your family if they were carrying a knife?

- Is the law too soft on those carrying knives?

- How should parents be made responsible for their children’s actions?

War on Knives will broadcast live in October.

Join the Sky1 drive to get knives off our streets.

Email us at waronknives@sky.com right now.

I've also posted this on BritishBlades - I first saw it mentioned on the SongOfThePaddle forum.

 

[saddle_tramp]

I agree with what your saying, but you want to be very careful dealing with media when theyre on a witch-hunt. id be much happier if one or two of our most intelligent members spoke on our behalf. rather than all of us having our say, with the likelihood of a few inadvertantly undermining the whole argument

 

[BigShot]

I do agree with you there.
This is currently up on at least 3 forums so there will probably be a few emails going their way.

I couldn't agree more about the importance of having intelligent and eloquent people doing the talking on behalf of reasonable knife users. I posted for awareness - if people want to put views together and have a few well respected and worded members speak for them then that's great.

It would be a shame for this to go ahead without any balancing arguments put forwards.

 

[LazySod]

Could we not come up with the one email and everyone sign it.

 

[joejoe]

i agree saddle tramp themedia would make good smithys they can bend anything