Swords Don't Kill People, People Kill People

It's long been a slogan that if guns are banned, criminals will simply resort to using... well, guns, because criminals don't care if they're illegal or not, but if they can't get guns, they'll just move on to the next most lethal weapon.

Like cheap imitation "Samurai swords." England:

The sale of imitation samurai swords could be banned by the end of the year, the Home Office announced today.

Importing or hiring the weapons could also be made illegal following a string of samurai sword attacks in recent years.

...

Collectors and martial arts enthusiasts owning or using genuine [and very expensive] samurai swords would be exepmt from the ban

According to Home Office estimates, there have been at least 80 serious crimes involving the swords in England and Wales over the last four years.

One MP recently warned that they were being used by criminal gangs as the preferred weapon of choice after guns.

Last month, amphetamine addict Hugh Penrose was jailed for at least 19 years for hacking a 21-year-old woman with a samurai sword and then deliberately running her over.

In October, Bradley Moran was jailed for 17 years for murdering another man with a samurai sword following an argument in a nightclub.

...

The Home Office now wants to ban their sale as part of a wider crackdown on knives and bladed weapons.

Carrying a samurai sword in a public place already attracts a maximum jail sentence of four years.

Vernon Coaker, the Home Office minister, said today: "Samurai sword crime is low in volume but high in profile and I recognise it can have a devastating impact."

Fine, ban them. Criminals will just go to the next-best weapon on the D&D weapons list. Let's see... hmmm, appears to be a bastard sword doing 1d10 damage when wielded with two hands.

Maybe -- just maybe -- it might be better to disarm outlaws than to outlaw arms.

posted by Ace at 05:16 PM

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