UK Might Ban Katanas; Chavs Shop For Claymores

BBC NEWS | UK | Ban on imitation Samurai swords

Quote:

Imitation Samurai swords are to be banned after a spate of attacks in the UK, say ministers.

The Home Office has confirmed plans to outlaw the weapons in England and Wales after putting forward the idea earlier this year.

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said there was a clear danger to the public posed by easily-available swords.

The proposal is expected to stop short of banning genuine Japanese swords held by collectors or genuine enthusiasts.

In March 2007 the Home Office proposed banning imitation Samurai swords after representations from both MPs and the public. Ministers in Scotland had proposed a similar move in 2006.

Calls for a ban came after a number of high-profile incidents in which cheap Samurai-style swords had been used as a weapon.

The Home Office estimates there have been some 80 attacks in recent years involving Samurai-style blades, leading to at least five deaths.

While genuine Samurai swords are part of Japanese history and change hands for large sums of money, there is a trade in imitation blades which can be bought over the internet for as little as £35.

Jail threat

Under the proposals, the government will ban the import, sale and hire of Samurai swords from April 2008.

Anyone breaching the ban will face six months in jail and a £5,000 fine.

However, ministers say they have recognised there is a special case for exemptions for genuine collectors of the original weapons and acknowledge there is a legitimate role for the blades in some forms of martial arts.

Vernon Coaker said: "In the wrong hands, samurai swords are dangerous weapons - there have been a number of high profile, serious incidents involving samurai swords in England and Wales in recent years.

"It is therefore crucial that we take this action to tackle the menace of violent crime.

"We recognise it is the cheap, easily available samurai swords which are being used in crime and not the genuine, more expensive samurai swords which are of interest to collectors and martial arts enthusiasts."

In 2000 Andrew Pennnington - an aide to former Liberal Democrat MP Nigel Jones - was murdered when Robert Ashman attacked both men at a constituency surgery in Cheltenham.

And at the beginning of December this year a Lincoln man was jailed after using a Samurai-style sword to murder a passer-by whom he thought had attempted to rape his wife.

The Association of Chief Police Officers has backed the Home office move saying that while the weapon is relatively uncommon, there is justification for a ban.

While genuine collectors such as museums will still be able to trade in the weapons, it remains unclear what measures will be put in place to prevent people from buying cheap blades via the internet, already considered a major marketplace for the swords.

First they came for our guns, then they came for our replica samurai swords.

SLIPPERY SLOPE SLIPPERY SLOPE SLIPPERY SLOPE

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Wait, nevermind.

This is pretty funny though. Who the fuck attacks somebody with a replica samurai sword? And a couple of crimes over the past couple years isn't exactly too much crime or reason enough to ban them if you ask me.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Apparently the British have been persecuting Klingons in addition to weeaboos

Lethal Star Trek blade seized in knives amnesty | the Daily Mail

Quote:

This horrifying five-foot weapon has been recovered by police during a knife amnesty.

The three-handled sword with a blade at either end, designed to be swung like a paddle, shocked officers who took custody of it.

Spoiler:

Force for evil: inspector Mac McGarry with the blade, believed to be a lethal Star Trek replica

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Nothing better than a puny white guy to make something look dangerous, right?

How ya doing, buddy?

As long as they stay away from my deadly machetes and butcher knifes everything is ok.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Quote:

The proposal is expected to stop short of banning genuine Japanese swords held by collectors or genuine enthusiasts.

So let me get this straight.

They're going to ban the fake ones... but keep the real ones. Hmmmmmmmmm.....

No sir, I don't follow the logic here.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

So if I take a paper clip and somehow use it to murder someone in a spectacular, newsworthy fashion, could I get those banned too?

edit: Oh, but not the really nice paper clips that come in the pastel colors. Those are a genuine part of the cubicle office and have collector value.

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So if you have bought imitation swords prior to the ban, does that mean you can keep them as long as you're not stupid enough to either use or flaunt them?

Practically anything with enough weight or a sharp edge can be used as a weapon. We'll need licenses for kitchen knives next, quickly followed by hammers, crowbars, saws...

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Originally Posted by the quiet fox

So if I take a paper clip and somehow use it to murder someone in a spectacular, newsworthy fashion, could I get those banned too?

edit: Oh, but not the really nice paper clips that come in the pastel colors. Those are a genuine part of the cubicle office and have collector value.

I was going to say something to this degree, but I was fearful.

The outright ban is ridiculous. HOW many things can you inflict fatal blows to a human with?

I hear hammers have been used in murders before. We should totally outlaw those. ESPECIALLY for those illegals on work sites. Imagine what those dirty Mexicans could do to us with a HAMMER.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by SuperNova

So let me get this straight.

They're going to ban the fake ones... but keep the real ones. Hmmmmmmmmm.....

No sir, I don't follow the logic here.

The real ones can cost thousands of dollars. The fake ones are 100-150 or so according to the article. Nobody whose purpose of owning a sword is committing a crime with it is going to pay thousands of dollars to do so.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Sassafrass

The outright ban is ridiculous. HOW many things can you inflict fatal blows to a human with?

I think this thread needs to understand that many things are illegal in the UK like nunchucks. You can't even SHOW them on TV - they had to paint out the chain/line that connected the two ends on all the Ninja Turtle cartoons.

You also can't even show headbutting on TV or in a movie.

Why is everyone so surprised that this is happening? I think its because the people in this thread are largely unaware of long-standing UK law previous to this crappy thread for jerks.

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Originally Posted by Diss

The real ones can cost thousands of dollars. The fake ones are 100-150 or so according to the article. Nobody whose purpose of owning a sword is committing a crime with it is going to pay thousands of dollars to do so.

What about ninjas? Yes, british ninjas. I doubt they'd get a replica to save a buck.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by LeHah

Why is everyone so surprised that this is happening? I think its because the people in this thread are largely unaware of long-standing UK law previous to this crappy thread for jerks.

Maybe it's because British laws are stupid. Why is you so a faggot?


Real Japanese swords are also a bitch to get a hold of because the Jap government regulates their distribution like uranium.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Yep our laws are silly, the video governing asshats hate anime and as such volumes are some $40 in cost and we have a goverment who doesn't know it's ass from a hole in the ground.

How ya doing, buddy?

I expect that all imitations will be grandfathered into legal posession as long as their owners are judicious about their keep. A person likely couldn't be faulted for displaying an imitation in his home but would be subject to scrutiny if he/she took the blade outside and waved it about in the public view.

I think it'd be more effective to ban the sale and purchase of imitation katanas, and not the object itself. If an owner can produce a receipt that predates the ban, then that person should be immune to posession charges. Menacing, on the other hand, is a prosecutible offense, regardless of the date of purchase.

I don't know how they expect to regulate internet sales short of going George Orwell on the peoples' credit card statements. And that won't catch Paypal transfers. As long as they're kept in the home, I don't think authorities will go on any manhunts. But if a katana is involved in a crime, then it's simply another charge that can be stacked upon the pile.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by LeHah

You also can't even show headbutting on TV or in a movie.

That's the second time I've heard someone say that and it's still not even slightly true. I've no idea where you got that idea from. Watch Lock Stock for example, there's about 3 headbutts in that. Also, nunchucks are banned in Germany, not here. The reason Li-Long has a three-point staff in Soul Blade rather than nunchucks is because the German government banned them, not ours. We actually have much more liberal censorship laws than you do in America.

The samurai sword ban is very silly though and yet another example of a knee-jerk reaction of our government to a problem that doesn't really exist in a sad attempt to grab headlines and look like they're actually doing something about the growing problem of knife crime in this country.

Where once we laughed at America for it's obsession with "Freedom" combined with restrictions on your actual civil liberties left, right and centre and heavy state monitoring of individuals, this country has turned into the worst kind of nanny state in the past couple of years. Anything that might be even slightly risky gets banned straight away now and there's constantly moves to eliminate the last few risk factors in everyday life that remain.

The stupid thing is, everyone basically ignores the government's attempts to force us to live safer and healthier lives. Britain recently overtook the US as cocaine use capital of the world, the smoking ban has killed the pub industry but cigarette sales are up since it's introduction, we're all driving faster than ever and kids are stabbing each other in the street over mobile phones.

We've been a nation of self-destructive thugs for thousands of years and no amount of government regulation is going to change that any time soon.

edit: Link to the bbfc classification of what makes an 18 rated film. You can't glamourise drug use or violence and sexual violence is generally frowned on, otherwise, show what the fuck you want basically.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Michael Douglas?


Seriously that's kind of a retarded law but then again Britain is pretty damned retarded.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by guyinrubbersuit

Britain is pretty damned retarded.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by guyinrubbersuit

Seriously that's kind of a retarded law but then again Britain is pretty damned retarded.

Oh the Irony. If I ask you to smack yourself with a frying pan will you do it? Actually forget I said that it might leave a large circular mark.

Tackling Knife culture is a big win win at the moment, the age for buying knives also went up to 18 from 16 just recently, this is just a by product of that.

I really don't see whats wrong; BB guns were outlawed too, its hard when your a police officer to tell if its a real gun so you don't want to end upshooting some 15 year old kid. All the ban does is in reality stop people from selling them in shops. But you can easily order one off the net plus other shit with ease they don't even check if your 18.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

I think it'd be more effective to ban the sale and purchase of imitation katanas, and not the object itself. If an owner can produce a receipt that predates the ban, then that person should be immune to posession charges.

Originally Posted by Article

Under the proposals, the government will ban the import, sale and hire of Samurai swords from April 2008.

Not illegal to own, just to bring into the country or sell to others.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

At least they're not banning real samurai swords. It'd totally fuck up the value of it if you killed somebody with it. Although it might add more collector novelty to it.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by El Ray Fernando

BB guns were outlawed too, its hard when your a police officer to tell if its a real gun so you don't want to end upshooting some 15 year old kid.

I didn't think that British police were even supposed to be carrying guns on their person. How could this even be a problem?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Bradylama

I didn't think that British police were even supposed to be carrying guns on their person. How could this even be a problem?

If the police get reports of someone with a gun or if they pick something suspicious up on cctv they'll send an SO19 armed response unit. There's not many places in the country that can't be reached by an ARU in about fifteen minutes and they generally pack MP5s. They're remarkably well trained but if someone points something that looks like a gun at them, they'll shoot. Luckily, gun culture in this country is such that nobody ever really even considers pointing guns at the police. It has happened a couple of times though where the police have shot someone who was only holding a bb gun.

It's not a blanket ban on bb guns, it's a ban on imitation guns. If it's bright orange and obviously plastic, you're unlikely to get arrested for it. A lot of our police display a remarkable amount of common sense when it comes to applying the spirit of the law rather than the letter.

FELIPE NO