Express & Star comment: Sajid Javid's latest attempt to tackle knife crime is meaningless
The right intentions but the wrong legislation.
First, the good news.
Sajid Javid is doing SOMETHING to tackle the sale of vicious knives in this country.
He has announced new measures as part of his Offensive Weapons Bill that will see a complete ban on the ownership of zombie knives.
And knives of any kind ordered online will have to be collected from a non-residential address such as the web retailer’s shop, while all buyers will need to prove they are aged over 18.
Now the bad news.
The E&S has already shown that such steps will be completely meaningless.
A long-reach machete would still be legal, with the only difference between one and a ‘zombie knife’ being the absence of lettering and imagery.
In the eyes of the law, it would not be the blade that was illegal, it would be the accompanying imagery.
Why would someone wishing to buy a weapon of this type go through the rigmarole of ordering it online and having it delivered to a shop, when they can visit a store in a town or city centre and simply buy one over the counter?
Providing proof of age is one thing, but this is already a policy for shops selling these weapons.
So what is new?
It seems like a positive measure, but in reality it is just a case of moving the deckchairs.
The fact is, that anyone who wants to acquire one of these lethal weapons is still able to walk into a shop and purchase it after going through only cursory checks on their identification and address.
Under the new legislation, there will still be no way of tracking what happens to the weapons once they have been taken through the shop door.
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All too often we are seeing incidents where horrific machetes and long bladed weapons, including swords, are being used in attacks and gang violence.
Increasingly, they are seen being used on CCTV footage, but the blades are rarely recovered from the hands of those who are using them.
Often, these weapons are conveniently dropped at the first sight of a flashing blue light.
What needs to happen is for these horrendous weapons not to be available in the first place.
Theresa May has said it herself. There can be no legitimate reason for anyone wanting to own one of these sharpened blades.
People who want to have them as ornaments would surely settle for plastic or rubber replicas rather than the potentially lethal real thing?
Let's face it, there is not going to be a zombie apocalypse on the streets of the Black Country and Staffordshire.
The reality is, these weapons are being used either to intimidate or attack gang rivals and members of the public.
'We need pragmatic legislation'
We welcome the backing of police and crime commissioner David Jamieson for our campaign, and appreciate that he has been a long term supporter of our efforts to change legislation on knife sales.
But what we need now from the Government is some realistic and pragmatic legislation that will have a meaningful impact when it comes to getting these weapons off our streets.
On such a crucial issue, there is no room for the muddled thinking and half-baked initiatives that have dogged the Home Office for the last eight years.
It is not too late for the new laws to be re-examined so as to close the loophole allowing the sales of vicious blades in this country.
The rising tide of violent crime must be curbed.
Mr Javid clearly has the right intentions, but as is so often the case with this Conservative administration, turning those aims into effective change remains elusive.
