Posted on 06/20/2006 7:55:11 PM PDT by blam
One in four shops is caught selling knives to children under 16
By David Derbyshire, Consumer Affairs Editor
(Filed: 21/06/2006)
More than a quarter of shops that stock knives are illegally selling them to children under 16, according to a survey by trading standards officials.
Despite concerns about rising knife violence, a significant number of shopkeepers are failing to check the ages of teenage customers or are wilfully turning a blind eye.
Richard Beckett, 14, shows knives bought by teenage volunteers
However, there was some evidence that the recent spate of stabbings and the Home Office amnesty may finally be changing attitudes in the high street.
In Powys, where trading standards officers carried out research using 13- and 14-year-old volunteers, 13 out of 41 shops approached sold knives illegally to children. Yet in Staffordshire, all of the 10 traders who were approached at the end of May refused to sell knives to teenagers under 16.
Ron Gainsford, chief executive of the Trading Standards Institute, said: "Year after year we have highlighted the problem of under-age sales. So it is extremely disturbing to find that so many traders are still prepared to sell knives to people who are under 16.
"We have actively supported raising the age for purchasing a knife from 16 to 18. This should make it easier for traders to check the age of a purchaser, and harder for young people to buy knives."
The research, presented yesterday at the institute's annual conference in London, was carried out by 14 trading standards departments in England and Wales. Volunteers aged 12 to 14 were asked to approach shopkeepers and buy knives. A total of 184 attempts were made and knives were sold on 53 occasions.
In Slough, Berks, a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl bought two carving knives and a bread knife.
Dean Cooke, from Slough trading standards, said: "We are appalled that, after all the work we have done to make shopkeepers aware of the law - and with all the recent publicity that has been given to knife crime - some traders still think it is acceptable to sell knives to children."
Businesses can face a fine of up to £5,000 or six months in prison for selling a knife to a person who is under age.
Those were good times, sitting around afterwards, comparing the welts on each other, and laughing at the guy that had welts he couldn't show without dropping his pants. It was always great fun to sneak around and get behind your opponents then pop 'em in the tail end with a 2 pump shot.
I had a blue Cub Scout knife. I was about seven I think.
I believe she (?) is holding a fish scaler, vegetable slicer, salami cutter, and perhaps a hunting/utility knife of sorts.
None of which could more neuter the slob than to appear in this article.
I remember my first knife too. I was 7 and it was a great big jack knife with a fake bone handle. I won it at a carnival by throwing darts at a wall of balloons. I also won a crisp clean $5.00 bill, all off of the same 3 darts I paid a quarter for. Dad took me to the store and I used some of the 5.00 to buy a wetstone, then Dad sat down with me on the back porch and taught me how to sharpen it up. Good times and great memories.
It is amazing how "protected" the children are these days. I rode a bike without a helmet too.
The hidden story here is those shadowy underground shoppes that sell not only knives, but [shudder] even SPOONS! At least nobody has been caught dealing in the dreaded SPORK!
Guess it's hard to get a game of Mumbly Peg going in the UK nowadays.
The article also cites sales of BREAD knives!!!
I had a forge forced by the exhaust from an old Rexair vacumn cleaner before I was 16. Modern kids won't likely get that sweaty and dirty, however.
HAHAHAHAHA They must be kidding or something.
Yeah, and that was back in the days of Evil Kneival. I remember stacking up bricks and laying a piece of plywood over them, then using the make shift ramp to jump my bike over Big Wheels.
'These sweet dears in England can outlaw knives, then in a few years they can outlaw tree limbs. What do these dimwits fail to understand about getting undesirables out of society? Lock them up, deport them, exile them, kill them. Expecting that violence will go down because the gummint outlaws the latest weapon is a fool's errand!'
You guys here are having a really nice anti-UK rant, but the federal law in the US is the same as the UK law - no sales of knives with blades longer than 2.5 inches to a minor. It's OK for a responsible adult to purchase a knife for a minor, but neither country allows minors to buy large knives for themselves without their parents knowledge. Waht the hell is wrong with that?
All of the knives in the photo are kitschen knives. What bunch of whining pansies.
"Please show us the law cited. I do not know of any such. There is a federal law forbidding import or interstate sales of switchblade knives to ordinary citizens, but I do not know of any that forbid sales of any knife to minors. Some states that have been taken over by hoplophobes may forbid such sales, such as New York.
Anyone can purchase machetes through the mail. Some sellers may decide not to sell to children because of liability issues, but I would be willing to bet a considerable sum that a 14 year old could legally buy all the machetes they want in Arizona, and it would be legal."
Now, now, you must not know Vectorian. "She" is a sex changed faggot who sells lingerie to people of the gay crowd.
apparently you have to be 21 to buy normal dinner knives or FORKS now. how is a 20 year old living on their own supposed to eat their food? with a spoon or just their hands? i’m outraged at not being able to buy basic cutlery for myself. it’s near enough an infringement upon human rights...
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