Wednesday, September 07, 2011

After gun control comes knife control

Boston already has strict gun control but still has a high and rising murder rate.  Consequently, the great minds on the Boston city council are proposing strengthening the knife control laws.  You can watch a video of Councilors Michael Ross and Tito Jackon explaining their proposal here.

Knife control and even pepper spray control in Massachusetts is not new.  TheBlaze writes:
Current Massachusetts law bans all sorts of weapons and imposes draconian prison terms for their possession. Many knives such as switchblades are illegal outright. You need a license to carry pepper spray.  One could guess this has made the city much safer from rogue female joggers.
Does knife control prevent crime?  Britain already has knife control.  In the Wall Street Journal, Joyce Lee Malcolm reviews the results of Britain's efforts at gun and knife control:

The ban on handguns did not stop actual crimes committed with handguns. Those crimes rose nearly 40%, according to a 2001 study by King's College London's Center for Defence Studies, and doubled by a decade later, according to government statistics reported in the London Telegraph in October 2009.

Knives? It's illegal for anyone under age 18 to buy one, and using a knife for self-defense is unlawful. In 1991, American tourist Dina Letarte of Tempe, Ariz., used a penknife to protect herself from a violent attack by three men in a London subway. She was convicted of carrying an offensive weapon, fined, and given a two-year suspended sentence.

The result of policies that punish the innocent but fail to deter crime has been stark, even before the latest urban violence. The last decade has seen a doubling of gun crime. According to the latest annual report of the Home Office (2009), there was a 25% increase in crimes involving contact, such as assault and battery, over the previous year.

PREVIOUSLY on crime:

NPR: If criminals make you uncomfortable, you are a "hardened racist"
Pro-crime immigration policy
Fake hate crimes
Hate crimes (and anti-Semitism) in the US
Our outdated criminal justice system
Court: Big brother may track you
CSI Fail: bite mark analysis
Why is Islam popular in prison?
Obama DoJ: vote fraud helps "increase turnout"
An insider's guide to vote fraud
In liberal paradise, dissent will be a crime
Should it be a crime to disagree?
Art or hate crime: you decide
Pro-crime: left defends sex slave ring because they were illegals (say what?)
To rise to power, 20th century fascists depended on liberal do-gooders.

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