Amid Surge in Knife Violence, British Supermarket Chain Pulls Kitchen Knives off Shelves

In the face of rising knife violence rates in the UK, supermarket chain Asda will no longer be selling individual kitchen knives. This comes on the heels of the company’s decision in 2016 to securely package all knives after a customer was stabbed inside a Poundland, another British grocery chain. For their part, Poundland stopped selling knives altogether last year. The grocery chains aren’t entirely incorrect — England does have a growing knife violence problem. However, regulating knives won’t stop the violence. And, boy, does England have a growing knife violence problem.

Over the first three months of 2019, England, with a population of just under 56 million, has seen 41 people killed by a knife based on this BBC report. According to the LA Times, “There were 285 knife homicides in England and Wales from April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, the highest number since comparable records began in 1946.”

That same article bluntly states, “Knives are the most common weapon used in slayings in the U.K., where guns are tightly restricted. About 40% of the country’s homicide victims were stabbed to death last year, while only 4% were shot.”

Drilling down into the stats even further, The Guardian ran an article this past week bemoaning the rising knife violence in the UK. While putting forward possible reasons, including cuts to police forces across the island country, the article gives the grim fact that nearly 40,000 knife-related crimes were committed in England in 2018.

The BBC article linked to above goes on to add:

Single kitchen knives are the most frequently stolen knives, Asda said, prompting the decision to stop their sale by the end of April.

Nick Jones, Asda senior vice-president, said the company had “a responsibility to support the communities we serve”.

“Whilst we have already taken steps to restrict the sale of knives to ensure that they do not fall into the wrong hands, we felt there was more we could be doing to support those looking at how to bring this issue under control”, he said.

Obviously, the UK needs to address the growing knife violence. Sadly, like leftists in the United States, England seems determined to continue to ignore the actual problems, choosing instead to blame an inanimate object that can easily be substituted for another inanimate object.

As defenders of the Second Amendment in this country keep asserting, violent people will find ways to enact violence no matter how many government regulations are in place. Take away guns, and they’ll use a knife. Take away their knives, and they’ll use a fork or a baseball bat or a brick or pick-whatever-blunt-object-you-want. The problem isn’t the instrument; the problems (plural) are part and parcel of a society that devalues human life, encourages fatherlessness, and replaces objective moral standards with postmodern ethics. Unless the UK begins dealing with the root causes of knife violence, people across Britain will eventually end up having their forks taken away.