Anti Knife Crime by Mark Davies

I was asked by the BBC to do an interview for Reporting Scotland today to comment on the government’s latest legislation against knife crime. Unfortunately after doing what I thought was a really good interview they didn't use that much of it, the news piece was very short- cest la vie. The great thing about having this blog is that I can say fully what I think.

The thing that people forget is that a lot of man hours & money goes into initiatives & consultation processes like this, where it could go into more productive countermeasures. The problem seems to me that the people who are coming up with these ideas don't have someone telling them what it’s like 'at the coal face', & really educating them on the reality of what they face. The idea that licensing suppliers of 'non domestic knives' is going to do ANYTHING to reduce the incidence of knife crime if pure fantasy. The vast majority of chavs & crims carry domestic knives or sharp tools. They are cheap, readily available in quantity in any kitchen or tool kit, & easier to try to explain away than a 12" Rambo knife. I have to respectfully disagree with what Chief Inspector Carnachan (sorry if I've mis-spelled his name) said when I did a radio interview alongside him a year or so back. He was adamant that the problem lay in 'lock knives' (folding knives that lock open)- in the 19 years I worked on the doors & around the sort of people who carry knives & commit crimes very few of them carried those sorts of knives, a few did- but most didn't.  Once or twice I came across folks carrying nasty old hunting knives or fishing knives, but 90% of the time it was some form of domestic knife or tool. This is backed up by what I am told by front line police officers that I train, & people that I train who work in security all over the country. I'll finish this paragraph with an anecdote from a friend who manages a large supermarket in Dundee. One of their most shoplifted items were kitchen knives! The 'chavs & neds' would take them out of the packet & leave the packet on the shelf or hanging on the display, & make off out of the store with the knife.

There are a number of reasons for the use of domestic knives or tools. The 'repeat offender' type who shoplifts, does drugs, breaks into cars etc- will most often dispose of the weapon after it has been used; so they want a cheap (preferably free) weapon. They often believe that if they have some form of domestic knife or tool they may be able to explain it away more easily than a 'non domestic knife'. Many of the troublemakers who carry knives don't carry them all the time, they arm themselves if they are going to certain places or doing certain things. Often they snatch up a knife if they have had some sort of disagreement with someone. They tend to snatch up something readily available- a kitchen knife for example. So by making it harder to buy 'non domestic knives' we haven't inconvenienced these people a jot.

One thing that the people creating laws need educating about is the perception vs reality of 'non domestic knives'. Let’s face it, many of these knives look really dangerous & scary to most people. The reality is that most of them are less dangerous than a kitchen knife or butchers style knife. I took a very scary looking (£15) non domestic knife & sawed it back & forth across my arm for the camera today. Many of these hunting or fighting knives have terrible blades, with awful edge geometry & bad grinds. As a Master Instructor of edged weapons I can tell you that they would be hard pushed to get through a couple of layers of clothing. They look scarier, but in reality they are no more dangerous than your steak knife, & in actuality your steak knife or your carving knife makes a far more effective weapon. Remember, something like the 'laser' kitchen knives are designed to cut meat. They are designed to rend flesh, & they cut or penetrate with ease. They are far more effective than ANY of the cheap hunting or fighting knives you'll get in your average 'Victor Morris' type shop. I own many very expensive high end handmade knives; some are worth £1000's. To your average chav they offer no advantage over a butcher’s style knife from your kitchen. The reason soldiers or experienced hunters carry good & fairly expensive 'non domestic knives' is because they are robust & take abuse in the field. However for a chav who wants to use the knife once or twice & then throw it away, a steak knife from someone's kitchen will do the same damage as a £500 Strider fighting knife; & a damn site more than a cheap 'survival knife'. One of the nastiest 'street weapons' is the humble screwdriver. Remember, cuts don't generally kill; its penetrating wounds- stabs- that kill. In WW2 the SOE issued its operatives a killing knife that looked very much like a large Phillips head screwdriver. It issued this because when a knife is withdrawn from the body the wound closes up again, where-as with this style of blade it punched a hole into the target; pushing clothing fibres & all the microbial flora & fauna that lives in it into the wound. This guaranteed a terrible secondary infection. A modern screwdriver does the same thing. It creates a terrible wound that doesn't close up. It doesn't look scary like a fighting, hunting or fantasy knife. It’s impossible to control or legislate against, but it’s a frightening weapon in the wrong hands.

So the next time you see some terrible looking 'Ninja Fang of Death' along with a scare story, remember its no more (& most likely far less) dangerous than the knives in your kitchen. In his interview at the Parliament Mr McAskill said that "this is about tackling the knife culture in Scotland. This won't eradicate the indiscriminate use of knives, that will take a variety of methods, but we do have to make sure that these knives are not readily available or acting as an inducement or enticement to people who may be encouraged to obtain them". I totally agree, it IS going to take a variety of methods to lower the incidence of violent crime & anti social behaviour in the UK. There is no single magic bullet that is going to do it. Unfortunately this latest idea will do little. The people who would have bought a 'Ninja Fang of Death' or 'Rambo's Toothpick of Doom' will simply pick up a stanley knife or a kitchen knife, or an awl, or a chisel, or a screwdriver, or make a shank out of a nail & a bit of wood, or tape a handle onto a hacksaw blade (all things I've faced or confiscated). The majority of the chavs & crims already do!

A knife is an inanimate object. The knife is not in itself evil or dangerous. It is a tool, & like any tool it depends upon the person wielding it. It is the mind that is dangerous. It is the mind of the criminals & the anti social that are dangerous. If we want to make a difference we need to work on the minds of the young to show them the correct path. We need to work on the minds of the youths to show the fearful amongst them that carrying a knife is going to potentially destroy their lives, not save them; & along the way we might just persuade a few of the chavs to take a look at themselves. We need to treat anti social behaviour & crime with the severity that it deserves & stop trying to be 'progressive' & warm & fuzzy with habitual offenders. There comes a point where the powers that be need to understand that some people aren't going to be rehabilitated & that the safety of society needs to come first. We have a family here in Arbroath who fall into this category. The entire family are constantly in the paper. Week in week out one of them has been charged or convicted of something. They do drugs, they break into houses, they break into cars, they break into sheds, and they attack people. Everyone I know is sick to death of seeing them constantly get sentences & fines that they are laughing at. These are the same types of folk who carry weapons without a seconds thought. No matter how 'illegal' it is or what the penalty is, they are habitual criminals- crime is what they do! Its people like them who commit the majority of violent crimes. If we want to see a drop in the rate of violent/knife crime we need to stop playing games with these people & GET THEM OFF THE STREETS!

These are far more difficult things to do than simply licensing shops that seel non domestic knives. But these are things that will work. I always tell my martial arts students that the only things worth attaining are those things that are most challenging!

Mark Davies