I've got to apologise for not having blogged anything for a while, I've been away teaching my Tactical Edge Combatives seminars all over the place, I've been away training with my teacher- Master at Arms James A Keating in the USA; its been a very busy time. In between all that I've been in the papers a few times & interviewed on Radio for my views.
I got contacted today by my friend, Councillor Jim Millar. He contacted me to give me the heads up about the Governments latest 'smart idea'. It had been mentioned before, but it seemed to go away; but truely bloody awful ideas never seem to die a natural death in politicians & civil serpants heads, & the idea of licencing shops & dealers that sell 'non domestic knives' has reared its stupid & pointless head again.
So what is a 'non domestic knife' exactly & how does it differ from domestic knives? The government is basically classing any field or hunting knife, folding knife, or fantasy knives (stupid things they are) as 'non domestic knives'. Now, a £10 hunting knife is a piece of garbage. I have collected custom & handmade blades for many years now. Its an offshoot of my profession as a martial arts instructor with a specialisation in the SE Asian & Western blade arts. Without blowing my own trumpet, I REALLY know a thing or three about edged tools & weapons. I count some of the worlds master bladesmiths as friends, & I own many of their works. A cheap knife is made out of cheap & nasty steel. Its got terrible edge geometery, is generally as sharp as a brick. I demonstrated this live on the sofa at GMTV with a really nasty looking fantasy knife I'd bought off ebay. The point I was making was one of 'perception v's reality', as the most scary looking objects are not always the most dangerous. This lump of steel didn't cut my bare skin though I sawed it against my arm, I wouldn't try that with ANY knife in my kitchen! Many of the really scary looking knives you see are actually NOT very effective weapons. They are too blunt to piece clothing, some won't even cut flesh. A few I have handled would have probably fallen to pieces if they were used in anger. Yes, they can be used as weapons & could potentially kill someone; but for one minute look in your kitchen!
See that serrated JML kitchen knife many people (& possibly you) have in the kitchen? That will cut through clothing, skin, muscle, blood vessels & organs with ease. It is available for free in many kitchens, & can be shoplifted in many supermarkets & general goods type shops. The steak knife is designed to cut flesh, & you can buy a whole pack of them cheaply or steal one from the kitchen drawer. That craft knife in your toolkit is a favoured weapon on the streets, used by people who don't want to kill, but to visibly maim you by slashing you up. You can steal one out of the toolkit, or off the shelf of a shop- or buy one for 99p & get five free blades too. See that screwdriver? Perfect thrusting weapon! Did you know one of the daggers issued to the WW2 OSS & SOE units was shaped like a large phillips head screwdriver? It was shaped like that because a normal knife wound closes up when the knife is withdrawn from the thrust, were the screwdriver punches a larger wound cavity that doesn't close up so much; more blood out & air in (carrying bacteria that cause secondary infections).
Let me be blunt (like one of those cheap non domestic knives....sorry couldn't resist that one). I worked nightclub doors for 19 years, & in that time I saw more knife incidents than you could shake a stick at. I worked in places where knife carrying was endemic. I took many edged weapons off people during searches. I know doorstaff from all over the UK who have had similar experiences, & who all say the same as I do. The vast majority of people carrying offensive weapons ARE NOT CARRYING NON DOMESTIC KNIVES!!!! I took a haul of knives & shanks I'd confiscated off people during searches into parliament with me a few years ago when I gave a presentation to MSP's there on my views; NOT ONE WAS A 'NON DOMESTIC KNIFE'.
The problem is that the politicians & civil serpants don't truely understand the people who are carrying weapons, & they don't really understand the reality behind the weapons that are being carried & those that are NOT being carried. I remember a few years ago being on Radio Scotland, & on wth me was John Carnochan from the VRU. Before we got interviewed they played an excellent bit of investigation, where they went into some places in Strathclyde & interviewed some local chavs. The reporter asked them what weapons they & others carried. The answers? They carried domestic knives because they could be easily obtained either straight out of the drawer, or easily stolen from shops. Immediately after the interview was played John Carnochan started harping on that Lock Knives were the real problem, blah blah blah. He didn't bother listening to the voices coming straight from the horses mouths! In his case he is a former senior policeman who would be happy to see his own grandmother banned. Lets be honest, at that level officers are political animals so maybe it suits him to ignore the truth. Here's the truth from someone who has 'been there & done that'. The majority of criminals DON'T CARE about 'non domestic knives' being more difficult to buy BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT CARRYING THEM! The few that are will just carry kitchen knives after they have to throw away their cheapo hunting knife or Ninja Fang of Death fantasy knife. The majority of them are wanting to carry something that can be thrown away after use, so they want something cheap or preferably free. As someone who teaches counter edged weapons skills to Special Forces operators I have to say I'd rather face someone with that Ninja Fang of Death from Victor Morris' than the serrated JML knife or carving knife out of the kitchen.
A decent hunting knife, field knife, or even (not allowed to call them this now) combat knife is actually no more dangerous or deadly than a domestic knife. The difference is that a good 'non domestic knife' is made to be more robust & hold an edge longer when used hard in the field as a tool. It won't cause any worse of a wound than any kitchen knife. Now, your chav has no advantage by carrying a 'non domestic knife. Its robustness & other qualities doesn't mean anything to them, as they will generally throw the knife away after they nail someone with it. The domestic knife does everything they need & its free! Granted, some non domestic knives have speciality uses, but not too many chavs will spend years studying the use of the Bowie, main gauche, Espada y daga, etc so don't panic (& I'm the only Bowie Instructor in the UK & I promise I won't teach them). The 'non domestic knife' looks more frightening, but people trust me- your kitchen knife will do the same thing or worse!
Now, local councils have enough on their plates. The government has now decided to plant another pile or work on their laps, & we will all have to pay for it. Kenny Mac has tried to make it sound all warm & fuzzy by saying that councils will have a great deal of say in how the new legislation will be applied, but its still a whole bunch of work that councils will have to organise & enforce- & its a complete & total waste of time! I'm very dissilussioned by the whole way that the Scottish Parliament is now approaching violence reduction. You have a constant flow of BS pointless & borderline embarrasing 'initiatives' from them. From their attempt to bring in a bunch of gang members into parliament to ask them what it would take to stop them carrying knives (I heard from folks in parliament they could hardly keep them under control). People, I have met & had to deal with these folks, & all that did was make them think they were such bad-asses that they had a bunch of suckers invite them into the parliament for a bit of a laugh, they see you nice intelligent middle class people as idiots! We then had the 'lets get maxilliofacial surgeons in to explain to chavs how terrible knife wounds are- pleeeeease, are you kidding me? All you'll end up with are some really shell shocked surgeons after a bunch of Neds have slagged them down & cheeked them up. You have John Carnochan & co saying its going to take ten years to make any difference to things; well thats handy, they get another ten years on a VERY nice salary which takes them to pension time possibly, hmmmmmmm?? Oh, lets not forget that as far as they're concerned Scotland is Strathclyde.
Lets think about what might make a difference. First, forget about the tool. Regardless of what you try to control or ban, criminals will continue to carry weapons & commit crimes. Lets face it, handguns are totally illegal but criminals still obtain them & carry them. This approach doesn't work & these stupid & inneffective measures which treat EVERY LAW ABIDING PERSON in the same way as the criminals & thugs just inconveniance decent sportsmen & enthusiasts. Remember Ken Macs predessessor & his famous "no-one has any reason to own a sword or have one in their home" speech? Talk about stepping on your own wedding tackle with golf shoes! Within an hour he had battle re-enactment enthusiasts, martial arts groups, blacksmiths, Scottish Dancers etc, all phoning up to give him a piece of their minds. The tool is not the problem, it is the person who has the mindset to mis-use that object that needs controlled. Its a funny society we live in just now. Someone doesn't pay their VAT & they get 12 years, but someone commits a vicious attack leaving a decent person maimed & they get 3 years??? We need to clean up the streets & realise that many of these predators who are well known to the police belong locked behind bars where they can't hurt people. Stop the fines, stop the community service, stop the kid gloves 'PC' treatment of the thugs.
I've stated before that I think that we need to be more aggressive in the way that repeat offenders are treated. I am convinced that a 'three strikes & you're out'style law would reduce violent crime considerably. Really bad violent crimes should be punished with ruthless sentences, get the scum off the streets! I've stated before that parents need to be MADE to take responsibility for their children. They would soon start controlling their 'little chavs' if they kept getting hammered with fines everytime Little Johnny got charged with vandalism or breach of the peace. I've stated before that we need to make sure young children need to get GOOD lifeskills training at school as an age where they can be influenced & moulded, so we are producing the good citizens of tomorrow. When I do school 'taster sessions' of my Little Ninjas programme many school teachers are very taken with the way we get over concepts like discipline, respect & courtesy to the children by a combination of special games, drills & positive leadership. I've stated before that programmes like The Cutting Edge have been shown to be the most effective way to reduce weapons carrying amongst youths on a local basis, but these programmes need to be delivered by the right people & they really should be delivered at school.
I know that many of my comments make me PNG amongst the people who come up with all the 'initiatives' that are flowing from the Government, but I'm not a 'yes man' & I say it how it is. We need someone to wake up & smell the coffee, & realise that there are people like me out there who KNOW & UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM & that we might just have some good ideas on how to tackle it. The trouble is that many politicians & civil serpants just don't seem to have the guts or the length of vision to choose the path that might just yield results, & they'd rather just grab a quick headline.
