The Gun Trade Association (GTA) and British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) have jointly responded to a Home Office consultation to introduce a licensing system for sellers and importers of knives and bladed articles.
Describing the proposals as ‘doomed to failure’ GTA and BASC do not consider that any licensing regime for knife sellers would be effective in targeting knife crime.
If implemented the Home Office proposals would require private sellers of knives, specialist cutlery dealers, gun trade wholesalers, distributors and retailers to apply to the police for a licence that could cost up to £466 for a three-year period.
BASC’s director of firearms, Bill Harriman, said: “Kitchen knives are the most commonly used item in homicides involving sharp instruments. Introducing a licensing system for sellers and importers of all knives and bladed articles ignores the obvious uncontrollable ease of access to kitchen knives in every home in the country. These number in the hundreds of millions.
“If the Government wants to effectively tackle knife crime it needs to reject these proposals and address the root causes of some young people using kitchen knives and other bladed items as weapons”.
Stephen Jolly, GTA chief executive added: “The imposition of further costs on registered firearms dealers and other retailers already struggling with a heavy tax and regulatory burden is deeply undesirable. It is unlikely that private sellers and smaller traders would consider the cost of a license to be justified.
“The police service’s enforcement and administrative capacity appear not to have undergone any realistic form of assessment before this proposal was made. Most forces struggle to discharge their firearms licensing function leading to long delays and backlogs. Adding a further licensing burden for knives to already overstretched police services for firearms is unrealistic and doomed to failure”.
GTA and BASC and have recommended that the Home Office should conduct an in-depth review of the evidential basis for licensing those who deal in or import knives. When the results of that are known, the proposition should be reassessed against it.
Integrating law enforcement with social services, health, and education - a public health approach - is considered the most effective way to address the root causes of violence.
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