I see trouble ahead after teenager's murder.

[mirage]

"Mr Justice Goldring called ... the knife Pennell carried... a "wicked weapon""

The picture in the Telegraph article today shows the weapon to have been a CRKT KISS.

The KISS was referred to in yesterday's Telegraph as a "flick knife." It is referred to in the Telegraph article above as an " 8-inch knife."

"His attacker [ ] took a flick-knife to Birkbeck school in North Somercotes, Lincs, and deliberately thrust it into Luke's chest..."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...27/nluke27.xml

I think it's time to circle the wagons.

Despite the fact that everything this murderer did was already illegal, I foresee the usual cries from the "Daily Mail mentality" to make it "Double Super Illegal With Knobs On", as if that would make any difference to anyone except the law-abiding.

mirage

[Chux]

I fervently hope you are completely wrong in this prediction. However, I know that it is borne from experience

It doesn't help when the lawmakers can't categorise things properly according to their legal definition.

[mloc]

it's good to see justice being served, but it's annoying when they mis-inform the mass public about the size/type of the knife that was used they could have atleast got the right picture and stated (he used a knife with a blade of ___inches). but that does'nt sell papers

[PS_Bond]

Show the daft old beggar some pictures of Steve Licata's work. That should induce enough apoplexy to put him out of comission.

I regularly carried a knife at school. An SAK - and it was used pretty much every day.

[Ophidian]

Just a few comments to add to what Mirge has said:

1. Killing a fellow citizen is murder and illegal no matter what weapon was used
(car, knife, gun base-ball bat etc. or just bare hands).

2. The picture shows a knife “similar” to the one used, which could lead people who
glance at the article to think that this is an flick knife (bit stupid as it is a skeleton
design and anyone with any sense can see it isn’t an auto).

3. The CRKT kiss has a blade of “only” 2.25 in, but that seems neither scary or
wicked so the press have reported a 8in knife, probably overall length.

4. You only have to look at 9/11 to see how effective a small blade such as a box-
cutter (Stanley knife) can be. This child could just as easily have been stabbed to
death with a pencil, scissors or slashed with the sharp edge of a identity card / buss
pass. Unfortunately it was a knife and so that automatically makes it far more evil.

5. If it where a real “evil” flick knife, then it would be totally illegal to have in public
regardless of any “good reason” that might be used for a normal lock knife. (I can
see why a fast opening flick knife was feared back in the 50’s – 60’s, when most
normal pocket knives where opened by a thumb nick and took 2 hands, but most
modern locking liners are (almost) just as quick with their thumb studs).

6. The “sheeple” might start to demand that all folding knives be banned as they are
far too easy to carry and conceal, not realising that a locking folder is already
classed as a fixed blade. But they forget that this lad could have taken a fixed blade
kitchen knife from home, or may even have stolen one from the school’s canteen or
art class. He could have taken a screw driver or chisel from woodwork /
metalwork class. As we know most domestic stabbing are from the use of kitchen
knives.

7. Slightly off topic, but I was shopping in a large deparment store in town and could not help wondering why all the large kitchen knives where so readily accessible? There are
plenty of homeless people, druggies around town so what is stopping them walking
into a store and going mad with a knife? Could even be a housewife or a business
man having a bad day! Quite scary thought!


8. As always, those of us that have an genuine interest in blades are considered by the
general public to be unhinged. It is a similar situation with the shooting sports. I am
fully paid up member of a target shooting club. The bolt-action rifles that I use bear
no resemblance to the illegal hand guns, auto machine pistols etc. that are used by
these gangs, and yet the general public perceive all guns to be evil.

Any death to a bullied child is a tragedy, I just wonder if they would have sensationalised it in quite the same way if he had been pushed down a staircase?

[ANDYLASER]

Perhaps a letter to the press complaint council regarding the reporting of "untruths", or "inventive sensationalism" would be in order.

[ZDP-189]

Perhaps a letter to the press complaint council regarding the reporting of "untruths", or "inventive sensationalism" would be in order.

No, there is nothing to be gained from it. I should avoid bringing unwanted attention to legitimate collectors by association with this deplorable and murderous act.

I agree that it's a technical inaccuracy, but it's better that he was killed with a 'flick-knife' than something that an adult could legally own.

[Lord Farquhar]

its weird how people think when you tell them you make knifes. most people think automatically " nutter!"

knifes don’t kill people, people kill people

how many people are stabbed by hand made custom knifes?
how may stabbed with beer glasses... why don’t we ban beer classes and make people drink out of styrene cups?

its just classic reactionary politics the problem is not knifes its violence and social and moral degradation..

oapbox:

[Darran]

I read the Daily Mail today and had this thought,i have seen the press do the "we sent a 15 year old in this offlicence/hardware store to see if he could get served with drink/solvents" and "teenager gets betting account on line".Will they(the press)now try and order as many "wicked flick knives" on line using an under aged person.
Traders beware.

[Little claw]

"Mr Justice Goldring called ... the knife Pennell carried... a "wicked weapon"

there's a subjective opinion masqueraing as fact if ever I heard one.

The KISS was referred to in yesterday's Telegraph as a "flick knife." It is referred to in the Telegraph article above as an " 8-inch knife."

The fact (or otherwise) that it was a "flick knife" is irrelevant to the crime in question. Because Pennell ambushed the victim with the knife already prepared, the ease of carry, concealment and presentation have no bearing on the outcome of the event. This incident could not have been prevented by legislation.

I think it's time to circle the wagons.

How? What can we do?

Despite the fact that everything this murderer did was already illegal, I foresee the usual cries from the "Daily Mail mentality" to make it "Double Super Illegal With Knobs On", as if that would make any difference to anyone except the law-abiding.

The though that I used to read the Daily Mail makes me feel nauseous these days. Such sensationalist language from the Telegraph is very disappointing.

[Yog]

Ever since I first heard about this case I had really hoped the thug had used a kitchen knife (although like all of us I REALLY wished he hadn't used any knife at all). But my worst fears were confirmed when the judge described the evil weapon as a "Locking flick knife". The fact he thought it was a flick knife doesn't bother me so much (easy to disprove), but the fact he highlighted it as being locking was a very worrying development.

Now I'm lucky enough that I feal confident about justifying a locking folder as an essential part of my work, but I'm really worried that this could all too easilly turn into a knee jerk reaction to ban all locking folders.

I think part of the problem is that we are becoming so much of a service industry society (relying on technical services rather than manufacturing), that large parts of the population have lost the concept of hand tools being relavent to a job of work.

I just hope something "interesting" happens in the world soon, so the press have something better to do than go on a crusade to rid the world of 2.5 inch folding "evil" weapons.

[ZDP-189]

Maybe we can persuade Tony Blair to shag an intern?

[BorderReiver]

It's not the newspapers that worry me(they print sensationalist crap to make money)it is the reaction of HMG that scares me

The French reaction to an incident like this,or one with multiple victims,is "what is it that caused this person to act in this way,and what can we do to change the social environment to stop a recurrence"

Our bloody lot rush to ban something.It is always easier to legislate against the law abiding majority and be seen to be "controling" things.The fact that what they do is TOTALLY pointless and does bugger all to make things better seems to be irellevant.(Yes I was a target pistol shooter )

[Slidje]

a kid was knifed at my old school some years ago so we had a lot of discussion about weapons. burnage has a bad reputation in most areas.

i thought the story about the father killing his own son with a kitchen knife was far far far more disturbing

[Yog]

It looks like things are already getting worse

There was just an audio clip on the radio news of the Home Secretary, where he said he was considering changing the law to make the act of carrying a knife (not just using) as serious offence as carrying a GUN :confused:

The wording on any new legislation will be VERY important. At best (but bad enough) we could be facing the fact that carryng a locking folder in a public place becomes a more serious offence. Worse case they make carrying any type of knife (including sub 3" slipjoints) in public a criminal offence.

So instead of going to work with a Spyderco Calypso Jnr clipped to my pocket, I will now need to carry a folding saw, a pair of gardening shears, a wood carvers draw knife (because it looks more tool like than a pocket knife), and a pair of scissors.
But on the other hand it will still be the case that when I walk onto a school site with my long handled slasher, with it's 18" blade, over my shoulder, no one will blink an eye at it :dunno:

Really, the Spyderco UK Penknife cannot arrive soon enough.