The Home Office is going ahead with plans to outlaw all zombie knives and some types of machetes in England and Wales.
Zombie knives—often bought from websites based abroad—first began to emerge in London and other cities in the early 2010s and in June 2015 Stefan Appleton, 17, was stabbed to death in a park with one in Islington, north London.
Such knives have blades of up to 25 inches, a serrated edge and are often marketed in ways that “glamorise violence.”
In April the Home Office opened to public consultation a plan to outlaw any blades which are “designed to look menacing” and “with the intention to threaten.”
Cooper: Tories ‘Hopelessly Weak’ on Crime
But shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This is the sixth time in seven years that the Conservatives have promised to outlaw zombie knives. Time and again the Tories have been hopelessly weak and slow to tackle this serious and dangerous crime.”In April, a judge urged jurors to write to their MPs about the danger of zombie knives after Emadh Miah, 18, was convicted of murdering Ghulam Sadiq in Leytonstone, east London, with a 22-inch blade, a weapon which was at the time legal to purchase.
Judge Christine Laing, KC, said: “The weapon we are concerned with here has absolutely no place in this society. I advise you to write to your MPs and ask why it is that weapons like the one you saw in this case can be bought from a website legitimately.”
She told jurors: “These weapons are there for anybody to purchase and it is beyond me as to why that is. Knife crime in general is becoming the scourge of our society but at the moment people can get weapons like that, it’s really quite shocking.”
The Home Office said they were closing a loophole which had allowed some retailers to continue selling dangerous weapons without breaking the law.
Maximum Sentence Will be 2 Years
They said the maximum sentence for the importation, manufacturing, possession and sale of zombie knives will be two years.
But, as The Epoch Times pointed out recently, judges rarely hand out maximum sentences for possession of a bladed article.
Ms. Badzak said: “Knives are weapons used to attack. It’s not a defensive weapon. If you knew your child was going to jail for 20 years would you let them hang out with a gang? Parents have to be pushed to understand the real consequences of carrying a knife.”
When the consultation was unveiled in April, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “The thugs wielding these deadly knives aim to terrorise their victims and the public, and too often even carry out horrific or fatal attacks. They are emboldened by the cowardly idea that carrying these blades inflates their own status and respect.”
“This can’t go on. These plans seek to give the police greater powers to seize and destroy these weapons and impose harsher penalties on the criminals selling them, keeping them off our streets and making communities safer,” she said.
