Who needs knives and guns when you have the comfy chair

My last treatment of Crime in Britian has proven surprisingly popular with google. That post dealt with the consequences of banning guns.

Its not uncommon to hear the slippery slope argument against banning guns. Whats next? Banning knives?

Well, today, I ran across this recommendation to ban kitchen knives in Britian to reduce stabbings. Yikes! Where does the slippery slope lead after this?

"Stay away from my girl, or I swear I'll fetch the comfy chair!"

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 28th, 2005 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “Who needs knives and guns when you have the comfy chair”

  1. Sounds like a good idea to me. We have a collection of fairly viscious knives that were bought as a cooking set that have never left the cupboard. I don't feel the urge to stab anyone, it's just that I wish I hadn't wasted my money on these useless knives :) .

    yours, Marcus

    p.s. None of us have been burgled despite living in Tottenham. However, the neighbours each side are both out and both have left the back doors open because of the heat, so you might be in luck. I'll keep you informed... ;) .

    By Marcus Baker on May 29th, 2005 at 12:16 pm

  2. And now for something completely different...

    By Rachel on May 29th, 2005 at 6:24 pm

  3. "Well, today, I ran across this recommendation to ban kitchen knives in Britian to reduce stabbings. Yikes! Where does the slippery slope lead after this?"

    As usual you didn't get it quite right. It was actually a proposal to ban points on long knives to reduce the severity of injuries caused by stabbings. It is not a ban on kitchen knives, nor even a ban on long knives.

    I think the interesting thing about your response is that you went straight to the slippery slope arguement without thinking much. Laws and regulations regarding knives are pretty common in the US and elsewhere. And most of these are (or were pre 9/11) focused on blade length. This comes from long practical experience with the kinds of wounds caused by different length knives. Most of these post 9/11 are probably now outright bans, such as knives on airplanes or sporting events.

    The interesting broader subject is about regulation of devices, substances, procedures, etc. in general. Things are regularly found to be dangerous: some new, some old. It is fascinating the effective and ineffective changes that are made both to the thing and the usage in an attempt to reduce the harm done.

    The fact that the doctors mentioned looked into both the necessity of the thing they were trying to change and the history of like changes indicated to me that they had perspective on what they were proposing. And since to proposal was only to change the sharp points on long kitchen knives to a less dangerous shape, I'm not clear what is slipping down which slope.

    By Christopher Thompson on May 30th, 2005 at 1:18 am

  4. That is just ridiculous. Guns and knives don't kill people, people kill people.

    By Matthew Fonda on May 30th, 2005 at 9:58 pm

  5. You've probably hear the cliche from someone here in the U.S., but the conventional wisdom here in Texas is that "when guns (or knives) are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns (or knives)." Better laws don't seem to improve public safety or reduce crime. Anybody with a first or business class seat on the next flight to Utopia could probably make a bundle selling me their option!

    Dave in San Antonio, Texas

    By Dave on May 31st, 2005 at 7:57 am

  6. "Guns and knives don't kill people, people kill people."

    "when guns (or knives) are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns (or knives)."

    Is that the best you've got? Doesn't anyone actually think anymore, or are bumper stickers about all the learnin' folks need.

    By Christopher Thompson on June 8th, 2005 at 1:24 am

  7. A weapon-free world is a world made of NERF.

    By Ryan Brooks on June 21st, 2005 at 8:07 am

  8. Recently, there was some stupid thing called happy-slaps where people use their camera-phones to record other people being slapped (really hard for that matter).

    Didn't happen to me (honest), but i went online to do a bit of research about it and got to read the comments from the U.S.

    Well the jist of it was that happy-slaps wouldn't have taken off in the U.S because the slappers would have just got shot - couldn't agree more.

    By Abu Aaminah on July 3rd, 2005 at 7:06 am

  9. "That is just ridiculous. Guns and knives don't kill people, people kill people."

    I absolutely agree. We should ban people.

    By Berislav Lopac on July 30th, 2005 at 8:16 am

  10. Next we'll be banning pencils and heavy candlesticks. None of these laws reduce violent crime -- in fact, they have the opposite effect (there is a great deal of statistical evidence in Britain and the US that crime increases when law-abiding people are disarmed, and that crime decreases when law-abiding people are permitted to carry arms). But cause and effect have never been particularly important to zealots and politicians.

    By BBlackmoor on August 29th, 2005 at 7:33 pm

Leave a Reply