'Zombie knives' ban to come into force - BBC

kylemiller

kylemiller

Joined
May 18, 2016
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http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37080682

Following the conviction the Metropolitan Police issued guidance about "zombie" knives:
There is no specific shape or style, but they are very ornate and intended to shock
In varying lengths and often with a serrated edge, the knives carry logos or words that glamorise and promote violence
They can cause greater damage due to their size
They are being sold as collectors' items online and in some shops
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We can all figure which "zombie knives" will be banned. What about knives that aren't so readily apparent? I think a court could apply this law to a lot of knives that we would not consider "zombie knives".

Cold Steel Broken Skull? Recon 1 or AK-47?

What about some larger Spydercos? Any Kwaiken style knife? What about tantos?

Remember to try to look at this through the lens of a non knife person.

Thoughts?
 
Mixed emotions here. I can see you are making the "slippery slope" argument, where the banning of one obvious example of a zombie tool may lead to the banning of knives with more practical design elements. I don't disagree with you here, but think some of the blood spatter stuff and blades seemingly designed specifically for human dismemberment do go a certain way towards degrading the hobby. TBH I feel the same way about some firearm mods I've seen that play off the zombie thing as well.
Let me say, I don't feel that my aesthetic preferences should prevent people from buying something like this if they are inclined.
However, if my ability to carry a what I consider to be a reasonable tool becomes infringed upon because someone wants to make a horror show of their knife carrying practices, I have to admit I put more fault with the "zombie hunter" than the legislator.
 
Kyle Miller,
Are you based in the UK? Just wondering. There is already law in place in the UK that knives cannot be advertised in such a way that it suggest they are for fighting. Yet all the knives that you describe are available and I haven't really noticed that it has made a difference to anything other than how people advertise and market.

The new amendment reads like this, and tacks on after the amendment about swords 50cm and over:
Amendment of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 19882.—(1) The Schedule to the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988(c)(which specifies offensive weapons for the purposes of section 141 of the Criminal Justice Act1988 is amended as follows.(2) In paragraph 1, after sub-paragraph (r) insert—“(s) the weapon sometimes known as a “zombie knife”, “zombie killer knife” or“zombie slayer knife”, being a blade with—

(i) a cutting edge;

(ii) a serrated edge;

and (iii) images or words (whether on the blade or handle) that suggest that it is to be used for the purpose of violence.”.
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The people wanting to tap the market of young men who fancied knives as weapons for posing and intimidation realized that they could get away with advertising grotesque, ugly Klingon-esque blades as killing and maiming implements if they claimed that those being killed and maimed were just the walking un-dead! I doubt that the law will have much impact on anything, neither the general knife market, how people are prosecuted, nor young punks lusting after ugly and impractical blades. Can't say that I think it a bad thing. Trying to convince people that knives are tools, and that people with knives are not all psychotic by default isn't helped when people motivated purely by profit are selling stuff like that and fanning the flames of fear and aggression.
 
Absurd!

How exactly do they expect the peasants to protect themselves from the inevitable zombie apocalypse?

Are vampire knives next?
 
I live in the US, so thanks for the perspective. My interest in this is the possibility of similar laws coming to the US, and discussing the "unintended casualties" a law like this might bring with it. Who doesn't love musing hypotheticals on the internet after all?

I know nothing about the nuances of law in the UK, but do you think it's possible that a court could view something like the a fully serrated Spyderco Matriarch in this light?
 
The whole article has a ridiculous tone to it, are people really that scared of those things? I'd much rather be attacked with some dumb impractical zombie knife than a regular knife of equal size.
 
Wow. That kitchen knife article was something else. I was underestimating the logical depth of UK weapon laws.

I assume this drum has been beaten thoroughly on these forums?
 
The subject is not spoken about as often as I think it warrants, but we do have Knife Rights, the "NRA" of the knife world which was founded by our very own Doug Ritter (Critter here on the forum).

best

mqqn
 
C_Claycomb said:
The people wanting to tap the market of young men who fancied knives as weapons for posing and intimidation realized that they could get away with advertising grotesque, ugly Klingon-esque blades as killing and maiming implements if they claimed that those being killed and maimed were just the walking un-dead! I doubt that the law will have much impact on anything, neither the general knife market, how people are prosecuted, nor young punks lusting after ugly and impractical blades. Can't say that I think it a bad thing. Trying to convince people that knives are tools, and that people with knives are not all psychotic by default isn't helped when people motivated purely by profit are selling stuff like that and fanning the flames of fear and aggression.
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Hey, ugly knives matter! ;)

And I think you're reading too much into things.
To update Freud, "Sometimes a zombie is just a zombie."

DCFC0194.jpg


DCFC0198.jpg
 
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As long as they outlaw those low carbon, stamped sheet metal, neon green, bleeding skull emblazoned mall garbage, i'm ok with it.

Any self-respecting edged weapon aficionado wouldn't be caught dead with such a flimsy waste of metal.
 
hermit dave said:
As long as they outlaw those low carbon, stamped sheet metal, neon green, bleeding skull emblazoned mall garbage, i'm ok with it.

Any self-respecting edged weapon aficionado wouldn't be caught dead with such a flimsy waste of metal.
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So much more eloquent that what I said! +1:thumbup:

Stabman, that's not an ugly knife....now THIS is an ugly knife!

zombie_knife-large_trans++wMpl-Jpdv5EMZZkofEupHBFJaBQLXRCzMl9_J53bXTg.jpg
 
C_Claycomb said:
Stabman, that's not an ugly knife....now THIS is an ugly knife!

zombie_knife-large_trans++wMpl-Jpdv5EMZZkofEupHBFJaBQLXRCzMl9_J53bXTg.jpg
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That is an ugly knife! :D

I still think people who don't know better should be allowed to buy it though.

I bought some pretty ugly knives as a teen (not as bad as that one though...yuck).
Some 15 year old that buys it is just going to make "Whoosh!!!" sounds in the basement, or keep it on their desk as they play computer games; they aren't going to kill anyone.

The whole "We're gonna stop gang violence now!" tone of the law and article is stupid, and takes away from real efforts to cure societal ills.
Of course, actually addressing the roots of crime and how to keep people safe is hard, so lazy public officials make useless laws like this to appear like they serve a purpose. :thumbdn:
 
I was given my first pocket knife at six and bought my first at eight but these days over here you are meant to be 18 before being sold anything sharper than dry wit! There is so much propaganda that its hard to know whether the restrictions have been of any benefit. I guess we should be grateful we have so few killings that almost any murder is national news, as opposed to some places where there are so many killings that they don't all even make the local city news.

While I would like to think that anyone who actually bought a fantasy blade of any sort probably wouldn't do more than make lonely "whoosh" noises and allow them to gather dust under the weight of Playstation disks, I am not in touch with the current world of teens in inner cities and what I think is a normal response ("yuck, what junk, why would I want this ugly thing") is certain to be way off base!

The 17 year old who acquired that particular knife did kill someone with it. :( He doesn't sound a nice person, and he wasn't carrying that thing around concealed just to make whooshing noises by himself.

I just wish that all these punks would stop using knives for violence and screwing with our hobby and start beating each other with giant wooden spoons instead!
 
So they've now reached the point of wanting to ban things because they're scary looking. Well actually they've always been at that point, it's just a matter of now being emboldened enough in their fear and paranoia to admit it openly.
 
The Ka-bar's are actually pretty nice. I own a zombie swabbie and it's an impressive piece. It is, however, sporting black scales.
 
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