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Comment by read_if_gay_ | Hacker News Reader

> Is a knife in violation of the criminal justice system because some people use it to kill and therefore no one can use it anywhere, ever?

I mean, guns are banned in many countries using precisely the same reasoning. And I might totally be wrong about this but I heard that in the UK you need to be over 18 to buy even just kitchen knives.

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> in the UK you need to be over 18 to buy even just kitchen knives

There's a "Challenge 25" (formerly "Think 21!" IIRC) policy which covers these kinds of situations - although it is just a voluntary agreement from the major retailers.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sale-of-knives-vo...

In New York, you need to be over 18 to buy Sharpies and spray paint.

There's some subtlety, but basically, yes:

https://www.gov.uk/buying-carrying-knives

Oh I love the specifics of that page. Did a lot of people try to walk around with kusari-gamas?

But it's just a totally normal agricultural tool! Totally not intended for ambushing Shogunate patrols in the night!

> It’s illegal to [...] carry a knife in public without good reason, unless it has a folding blade with a cutting edge 3 inches long or less

> The maximum penalty for an adult carrying a knife is 4 years in prison and an unlimited fine. You’ll get a prison sentence if you’re convicted of carrying a knife more than once.

This blows my mind a little bit. I have a Swiss Army knife (among a ton of other things) in a waistbag that I carry most places I go. It proved very useful a few times, but other than "in case I need it" I don't have a particular reason I carry it. It seems really dystopian to me that in the UK, I could get 4 years in prison for that.

Does your Swiss Army Knife not fold? Is the blade on it over 3 inches long?

Unless I'm mistaken it looks to me like that law was written almost specifically so that Swiss Army knives in particular are considered an exception to the rule.

Not the person you are replying to, but from memory/estimation the leatherman I own has a blade longer than 3 inches.

My particular knife is also longer than 3 inches, but it's a larger model and I think you would be correct to point out that most Swiss Army knives are shorter.

> It seems really dystopian to me that in the UK, I could get 4 years in prison for that.

You couldn't.

That sentence is the maximum possible available for a particular type of offence.

https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-co...

You'd need to combine location (possession at school, or in prison, or at a place where there is serious public disorder) or effect caused (causes serious alarm or distress), and also intent (crime based on hostility to religion, race, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity of the victim), or the blade would need to be a "highly dangerous weapon" (ie, not a swiss army knife).

Carrying a swiss army knife, and not having a good reason to do so, would be culpability D and harm 2, and so the sentence at mags would be a band C fine (about 1 week of your pay) or a medium level community order.

Guns are not banned in any country. They are restricted in almost every country, for good reasons. The level of restriction may vary based on culture, history etc.

Also people who claim the same logic applies to kitchen knife and guns are mentally still living in the wild west of the 1800s.

> Guns are not banned in any country.

Wikipedia indicates that a few countries (e.g. Laos) ban all private citizens from owning guns. See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_of_gun_laws_by_nati...

Countries where guns are "banned" only include a handful of outliers. I think only Eritrea has a blanket ban on gun possession by civilians. "Applicants for a gun owner’s licence in Laos are required to establish a genuine reason to possess a firearm, for example hunting" (https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/laos).

Ah, sort of like how concealed carry isn't "banned" in Hawaii because a permitting process exists, but in reality <10 permits have been issued since the system's inception.

https://ag.hawaii.gov/cpja/files/2018/05/Firearm-Registratio...

AFAIK guns were banned by the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Sakoku period till the Meiji revolution & gun ownership is still very limited in Japan even today.

The primary intended purpose of a gun is to wound or kill humans or animals. You _can_ kill people with a kitchen knife, just like you can with a beer bottle or with your hands. Not exactly the same thing tho, is it?

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