the type of person who carries a knife and is prepared to use it has an altogether different mindset to the majority of people. they have a completely different code of ethics and a lot of the time will fail to comprehend how appalling and plain wrong their behaviour is. this suggests they've grew up in a poor enviroment with little moral guidance from parents - or encouragement about the rewards of sticking in at school. the police, social services etc are just part of a game for them. they probably have little hope for a rewarding legitimate future - thus their rewards/good times are gained via drugs/drink. we all like to enjoy ourselve - but we don,t all need to steal from others or intimidate people to do it. lack of money or prospects in our materialistic society must be quite a burden - especially for young people -who seem to be the main targets for advertisers/media etc. its no good to simply punish or build a nice new youth club. a lot of the present generation of youth may be beyond help; but, we need long term plans now to protect society from this in the future otherwise a steady decline is inevitable. it,s such a complicated issue and i'm not sure what the solution is - but would think it would have to come through economic reforms favouring the lower paid (even if those substantially better off suffered a little), improving education, and somehow giving these people a means of haviong goals and aspirations. respect is the key - getting it is the problem.

Here's a tip. Try to look at why people carry knives, why do they think it's necessary, it's mostly family breakdown, poo parenting (or both) and that has to be dealt with first. Sometimes when children are being abused they turn violent (Source: Experience) and that means, parents need dealing with more than the kids they damage. Kis need protection, not punishing! Please, think about it again, think what else ca be done, how the stat could help children in a more appropriate way. Please...

That is not the point. You should encourage parents to take more responsibility for their kids and how they behave. For Gods sake, changing the law and that is not gonna help.
Do you still not understand? Jeeeeeeesus Christ!!!

This is a timely change and it's good to see the PM taking action when events dictate.

Why do people blindly assume it is the parents fault? Just because someone is carrying a knife it does not automatically mean that they have had bad parenting throughout their childhoods, it means that they (the individual) has chosen to pick up and carry said knife on their person. I have made many assumptions about the people I work with, and most of those have been proven wrong or at least slightly wrong. I bet that if I said to you that I carried a knife (which incidently I don't) you would automatically assume I was poor or at the very least was a Chav? Am right? It is not simply down to where you come from, what you are or even who you are, it is down to the individual and the blame should not automatically be placed at the parents door.

I'm sorry but "timely change..." what a load of nonsense yet again people are pandering to a media obsessed with selling the public bad news. What goes unreported is that crime has actually fallen dramatically since 1997, but gun crime and knife crime are only slightly up. Yes more crimes of those sorts are reported, but again there is an automatic assumption that because of that crime has risn dramatically...WRONG! It means that people are far more able to come out and tell people such as the Police what is going on, and if that means rising levels of knife crime then so be it, but at least unlike Wife Beating in the 70s and 80s, we know about it rather than it being hidden and doing more harm than good.

what do you mean it's not what you are or who you are - it's down to the individual?!your not making much sense. what you are/who you are is your individuality - and this is generally shaped by your environment, experiences, and especially childhood. it is logical to assume that a person who carries a knife has insecurities or questionable values - which must have arose from bad experiences/examples. or would you suggest these people all have some chemical imbalance that renders them devoid of faculities. it is wrong, of course, to automatically point the finger at parents - but it is also important to try and gauge what kind of parents they were/are, as it may/or may not help professionals understand the issues more.

I missed out "just" in that sentence that you are talking about, but basing an assumption upon where someone is from and who they are is wrong. Just because someone is carrying a knife it does not mean that they are poor and that their parents have brought them up in a bad way. Technically there is no wrong or right way in which to bring up a child, it all boils down to whether or not it will survive and take it's parents genes further. However I am not implying that it is down to said genes that someone will carry a knife. I mean know people within my own family who haven't had what you would call the best start in life, but they didn't or don't carry knives.

The majority of people who carry knives won't use them, but there is a minority that do but that shouldn't shape our understanding of why they are carried, they are carried for personal protection when someone feels unsafe or unsure about the area/s that they live in or have to go through on a daily basis. There should be more Police on the beat and far more obviously, so people feel safe and the people living in those areas should be brought in to help with ideas on how to get rid of knives or at least reduce the crime associated with them. We cannot simply reduce knife crime by Govt based initiatives alone, people living in areas with high knife crime have to be brought into help!

Blatant assumption and by proxy finger pointing will not and doesn't always work. There is a certain sense of peer pressure involved with young people and there is always the problem of religion, what happens is a Constable or PCSO stops and searches a young person who is Sikh? Will they be arrested and their parents disciplined and made to go on a course about knives? There are certain religions which, within their rules, states that a knife should be carried, one such example is above and there are others within different religions and sects. What happens if something like the above happens?

i hope you realize i am not pointing the finger at parents - but merely stating they have their part in the equation; as do economic circumstances, enviroment ( not neccessarily poor or deprived ), peer pressure etc. it is a difficult issue to remedy - but it is essential to address all possible causes ( without apportioning blame ) to understand and reduce the likelihood of knife crime. i agree with what you are saying about facillitating community involvement - and i think we are both saying it is not about blame, but about solutions. my personal opinion on the religious issue you mention is that, while people beliefs should be respected, civil law should take precedence on this issue.

when a person carries a knife it is not always for protection, nor is it to commit a violent act. knifes are uesful wherever you are be it at a job site or in an office or at home. i've been without my knife while i was in school and in a shop class. i can't tell you how many times i wish i had it so i could whittle somthing down or cut a box open. i also go to rendevous(reenactments of the time of the mountain man) and everyone carries knifes, guns, axes, tomohawks, blackpowder, and not one person in my 13 years of active participation has ever been stabed, shot, or hacked. i can only think of 4 people in my family who don't carry knives or have guns in there house. im sorry but i'm for "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" the more laws the govnment passes on weapons,the easier it'll be for them to take completely over. I'm also a boyscout so i go camping alot. i'd hate to say this, but laws just don't apply when your camping. you see knives everywhere at summer camp. we also have bows, .22 rifles, and 20gag and 12gag shotguns. in all 8 years of going to summercamp, not one person has been hurt by any of those things.