Only Professional Chefs Should Be Allowed These Knives

You know how the anti-gun lobby says only the police or military should have access to certain firearms such as the AR-15 or handguns with standard capacity magazines? Well, it seems the Brits are planning to go beyond firearms to include things like chef’s knives, machetes, and “zombie knives”. Zombie knives are those that look “evil” or have markings on them that suggest violence.

British Home Secretary Suella Braverman has issued a “consultation” which seeks to give police the power to seize knives found in the homes of suspects, ban other knives, and increase the penalty for selling, making, or importing “dangerous knives.” This is a predecessor to adopting new legislation.

From the Daily Mail:

Kitchen knives could be seized from the homes of suspected criminals under a proposed Home Office plan.

Police will be consulted by ministers to allow them extra powers to ‘seize, retain and destroy bladed articles’ kept in private, even if the knives are ‘not on the Home Office’s banned list of weapons’.

Certain knives such as push daggers, swords, and butterfly knives are already bannned.

The rationale supposedly is due to “knife-enabled crime”. British police has seen an increase in stabbings along with a 17% increase in “possession of article with a blade or point” crimes.

From The Telegraph:

Chris Philp, the policing minister, said: “Too often we hear from towns across England and Wales that another life has been lost to violence, often using large knives that have no legitimate use. 

“It is time that we move to ban these dangerous weapons, which is the process we are starting today. We are also consulting on giving the police more powers to seize knives.

So I guess professional chefs will now be required to keep their knives in locked cases and only farmers will be allowed to use tools like a machete. The average home gourmet cook will have to get by with unpointed (and probably dull) knives. Likewise, the home gardener who seeks to keep that bramble or hedge under control will need to use an electric string trimmer and not the “evil” and “dangerous” machete.

I wonder how soon before the Home Office goes after the quintessential British gardening tool called the Billhook like the double-edged one below from British gardening company Carters (established 1740)..