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Anyway, and we got the discord link to all of this below. New proposed UK machete and large knife law ban. Your action is needed. Okay. This is by some guy. What's his name? Let me get it right. I don't want to say some guy. I'm just going to put it above my head because that is a crazy name. Because I don't, what the hell? Let's get into it though. The UK governments doing it again. They're trying to fight knife crime by banning some random objects. Hi, folks, Matt Easton here. Scholar Gladiatoria and also East- Scholar Gladiatoria. Okay, that's the- Nanticarms. For anyone who doesn't know me because you've been forwarded the link to this video, I'm an antique sword dealer. I've been head of arms of a London auction house. I also teach people how to fence, martial arts, I do stuff with film, TV, and I consult for museums, and I do product development as well. So my entire life is affected by the laws that pertain to swords and knives. And since 2008, we've been having a pretty difficult time due to the banning of curved swords. Subsequently, the home office realized that they'd accidentally banned things like fencing, re-enactment, martial arts, and they quickly had to rush out a bunch of exemptions and defences to enable these hundreds of thousands of people to continue with their completely peaceful and law-abiding activities. But with ever-increasing knife crime statistics in the UK, rather than looking at the causes and trying to deal with the underlying issues, yet again, the home office has pulled out their favorite trick of wanting to ban something. This time, they're turning their tensions to machetes and large knives. So this affects a far larger number of people in the country, trades, crafts, hobbies of all sorts, not just us sword users. Now, what I'm going to do here is present my response, which I've sent. Imagine having to ban swords. I think about, really think about, like I've seen in CCTV footage somebody using one of these where my arrow is behind him. Like, I've seen it, unguarded! My fellow good opp! Like, what are y'all on? Oh, man. Into the home office. I'm going to share a link to that below as well, and also a link to the consultation. So this is currently a consultation process. What you can do to make a difference here is to respond to the consultation. Obviously, I suggest that you do so in an intelligent, coherent, well-edited, and concise way, maybe more concise than me, so that it will have the most effect and help the officials at the home office to realize the pitfalls of what's in crime, despite the fact that we know that the vast majority, practically all, in fact, have knives used in crime, statistically are kitchen knives or tools like screwdrivers and chisels. But nevertheless, they're looking at machetes and large knives, and they have to read the consult... They want to ban the shocking stuff, the shocking stuff. Like, you can't ban a Phillips screwdriver or a flat-head screwdriver, but you can ban a machete, because the shock value is there. Alternate consultation document below, but fundamentally, they're looking at banning or prohibiting knives, which contain two or more of the three characteristics. One, a single edge. Two, a serrated edge. And three, more than one hole in the blade. As many of you will immediately realize, this covers a whole raft of objects which aren't necessarily the things that are intending to ban. But... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a lot of stuff. Single edge, serrated, I mean, multiple holes. Now, I'm just going to read through my response. You can absorb that, and hopefully it will help you to form your own response. Dear sir or madam, I'm writing specifically in response to the government consultation looking at the proposal to add a new object to the Offensive Weapons Act 2019. I want to focus on three specific points that I feel have been drastically overlooked. Number one, the proposal could cause more deaths from stabbing. Number two, the proposed text... That's true. That's true. The proposal could cause more deaths from stabbing, because with... My bad. With these instruments that they are banning, criminals are going to find something to substitute for them that are even more dangerous or even more, like, not straight-edged or not something that can be easily repaired by a doctor. Erroneously colors many objects that are common tools. Three, the proposal must include exemptions and defences for legal activities. I'm a military historian and fencing instructor consulting for TV and films, as well as being an antique military dealer. I go on to basically give my resume. I won't share that with you here. Thank you. While I fully understand the impetus and desire for new anti-knife crime activities, given the troubling statistics, I was alarmed to read the 2023 proposal legislation updates to the Offensive Weapons Act 2019. I feel this proposal, sorry, is very wide of the mark and will do more harm than good. It does not at all seem to achieve the goals of the government in brackets to reduce knife crime and make us safer. In fact, it could increase the number of deaths as I will expand on below. In addition to that, I can see a lot of pitfalls evident in the text which will adversely affect civil servants in acting and forcing it, for example, police and border force, as well as trades and hobbies trying to comply with it, such as reenactment, bushcraft, fishing, TV, film and theater, gardeners, DIY, et cetera. Right. You see what I'm saying? Like, that's crazy. I said that in the beginning, like gardeners can't even go gardening. Like, what if you've got a root that's too big and you need a machete to cut that mud? Like, what you supposed to use? A pair of kitchen shears? Which, what? Your draft proposal appears impractical and counterproductive. Number one, the proposed legislation will make the streets more dangerous. I said, okay, come on. Talk to me about the streets. I know you're not involved, but talk to me. I'm sure you're right. The Office for National Statistics, the ONS, estimates that over 80% of knife violence is committed with kitchen knives, with a large proportion of the remaining 20% being carried out with tools, such as box cutters, chisels and screwdrivers. They are predominantly used to stab, not chop. Kitchen knives and garage tools are omnipresent and easily obtainable. There are no official... He's spitting all facts. ...your statistics in the UK, but it is thought by those working in the field that I have spoken to, police, doctors, lawyers, civil servants, that violent crime with machetes makes less than 2% of the total of knife crime. Violent crime with swords seems to be well below 1%, and in fact is so rare as to be not measured or quantifiable in any of the available official statistics. I can see that. It'll just be like shot... People see... You see them a lot on YouTube and videos because obviously you're shocking and crazy that you see somebody with a machete or a katana blade outside, you know, spinning your block, but I would imagine it's rare, especially the katana blade. Curbing the availability of other forms of knife will have no effect on the availability of kitchen knives, chisels and screwdrivers, of course. Kitchen knives and screwdrivers are cheap and omnipresent, so these statistics are not at all surprising. Kitchen knives and screwdrivers seem to be the default weapons of knife crime in the UK at the moment, based on the data available to us, with things like machete wounds being very rare statistically. If a machete is not available to an attacker, a kitchen knife always will be. A machete or indeed most of the prohibited zombie knives is usually less dangerous than a kitchen knife. Stab wounds are far more dangerous on average than cuts are and statistically more likely to re... See, he took it to a place where I wasn't even thinking. Stab wounds are way more dangerous than slices. As a result in death, kitchen knives are usually far sharper on both the edge and the point than a typical machete or zombie knife. Zombie knives are often virtually blunt to the touch compared to a kitchen knife and relatively useless. There's weapons of offence being often intended as display items primarily. Most standard garden machetes are relatively blunt. You're forgetting the ingenuity of a criminal. I will say that though. You are forgetting, I hear your statement is rare. Come on now. You don't think people are sharpening those before they go outside? They can be sharpened. I'm pretty sure they are being sharpened. Compared to kitchen knives at least and broad tipped being used to hack and designed to hack, not stab. They will not generally penetrate clothing with a stab due to their tip shape. Machetes are therefore in general less dangerous medically than kitchen knives or chisels or screwdrivers are and those are the things that predominantly used in stabbing. If the criminal intended to use a machete were to switch to a kitchen knife, then your legislation has only succeeded in making the attacker more dangerous. And we should expect. See, he's trying to get a point across. The point is super valid. At deaths to increase correspondingly. Surely enough criminals. Let me tell you about these criminals, man. Let me tell you something. Especially about knife crime, right? A lot of people are swinging, like he said, too cut, too slice. It's rare where you get up on somebody and they really trying to insert, twist and turn. You know what I'm saying? It's very rare. So he's valid right now. He's valid. You're gonna turn pump fakers into real shooters. Like real, you know what I'm saying? Y'all get the analogy that I'm trying to make right now. Pump fakers, where you fake like you're gonna do something. Like when you fake like you're gonna, you're gonna turn them into real doers. Encouraging criminals to switch to using more dangerous kitchen knives is a recipe for disaster. Criminals choose machetes for intimidation due to their size. Big facts. It's a shock value. Not due to their medical knowledge or understanding of how weapons work. Doctors will tell you that kitchen knives are often more dangerous to life than a machete is and criminals will always have access to kitchen knives. Therefore, the only logical evidence-led approach is to concentrate all efforts on the causes of knife assaults, including robust stop and search powers which police apparently want. Not to try and ban ever greater numbers of tools when kitchen knives will always be available in every kitchen to every potential attacker. Number two, the proposed legislation will accidentally ban many common tools. The wording of the proposed legislation is such that it will create confusion amongst those enforcing it and those living there. You know what they're gonna do with his letter? They're gonna scan it with their eyes, they're gonna look through it and then throw it in a pile to be filed. And then everything he's saying is gonna come to fruition if this proposed UK knife law comes into effect and then they're gonna be backtracking, trying to fix it instead of dealing with it right away. Everyday peaceful lives by covering an array of objects which are not intended to be banned. The standard machete is a garden tool like a bill hook or a sickle. A standard machete does not have a serrated edge nor does it have any holes in the blade usually. Your proposed text, therefore, will not cover a normal garden machete. However, the proposed wording will ban certain types of other tool that are practically never used in violent crime as far as we can see from the available statistics and are usually less dangerous anyway than a standard kitchen knife. Any text that you devised to cover a normal garden machete would also cover such tools as bill hooks, sickles, carving knives, spoke shaves, lawn mower blades, kebab knives, or meat cleavers. As is probably clear to you, these tools are used by numerous trades and hobbies, the length and breadth of the UK. That's true, you can't even go to a kebab shop and get you a good little chicken shawarma or whatever they be slicing up in there. They're essential to those trades and hobbies. Why can inconvenience hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of citizens, when most of the knife crime is being conducted with kitchen knives has always been and will always be regardless of what you ban. The criteria you propose of banning knives over a certain size with blades having any two of one, a conventional edge, a serrated edge, and more than one hole in the blade, accidentally runs the risk of covering a wide range of non-offensive and practically never used in crime tools. The ambiguities even extend to the most fundamental question of what qualifies as an edge of a blade. For example, if a kitchen knife has not yet had the grip scales added to it, then what you have is a blade with more than one hole in it, so that would be a prohibited illegal item. This would become banned, therefore, and how would a company manufacturing kitchen knives ever get to construct them before they put the grips on? Many gardening tools have serrated saw- I think he's reaching right there, but continue. Witches and holes in the blade. Many DIY saws have a serrated edge and holes in the blade. Chain saws have serrated edges and holes in the blade. Ooh, okay. Many types of scissors and kitchen knives have holes in their blade and certain types of sport fencing and historical reenacting swords also have holes in their blades. The list goes on and on. Three, exemptions and defenses. We have already hopefully learned a lot of lessons from the disastrous banning of curved swords, and needless I should add, in 2008, and the subsequent amendments by the Home Office to deal with the wording of the legislation to allow the numerous popular legal activities enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of UK citizens to continue, although not unimpeded, I have to say, such as fencing. I think we get it at this point. Once again, the government is looking to patch, they're looking to patch something instead of replacing the entire problem. You know what I'm saying? That's not gonna fix it. He's making a valid point. There's kitchen knives. 80% of this is done with kitchen knives. The other percent is done with garage tools. Like a bad guy is always gonna find something to do bad stuff with at the end of the day. So don't harm regular citizens with this bullshit ass long that they be coming up with, man, at the end of the day. I get it, you wanna protect. You wanna get these crimes off the street. Well, you know, let's not look at the obvious thing to do. The obvious wrong thing to do. Let's take a little deep dive. Let's really focus in. DLL, leave a like, comment, subscribe, turn on your post notifications. Let me know what you're thinking in the comments. I'm gone.