Report to the People
26th June 2006
eBlade
Communities like ours
campaigned long and hard for tougher laws on knife crime.
And, in the recently passed Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice
Bill, we got them.
The heavier penalties for
carrying a knife are welcome and essential, as is the amnesty aimed at getting
knives off the streets. But, if we
want to tackle the problem at source, we need to stop these weapons getting onto
the streets in the first place.
While the new legislation
tightens the law governing the sale of knives on the high street, its
effectiveness will be compromised so long as budding psychopaths can get their
hands on a terrifying array of weaponry online, no questions asked.
It’s obviously far easier
for someone to purchase an item in an internet auction which they couldn’t
legally buy in the shops - a fact popular online auction site eBay recognises by
prohibiting users from selling things like alcohol.
In what seems a dangerous
anomaly, though, the very same site allows users to trade in hunting and combat
knives, machetes, daggers, swords and more.
To be fair, eBay does ban the
sale of some weapons. But, while it
still permits the sale of the blades which are spilling blood and ruining lives
in our community and in others, they need to go further.
I am, therefore, putting
pressure on eBay to take action, catch up with the mood across the UK and add
non-domestic knives and other bladed weapons to their list of prohibited items.
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