Catholic Church calls for knife control

Clergy members want the British Parliament to ban pointed kitchen knives. Author: Dale Greenstein October 7, 2019

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Gun-control.

It’s a topic that triggers countless political showdowns -- and high-powered, dinner table debates -- here in the United States, but in the United Kingdom, a sharp conversation over knife-control is cutting through the country.

Yes, you read that right -- knife-control.

Here’s why:

In Great Britain, like in most of the developed world, gun violence simply is not a very big problem, but knife crimes are on the rise. According to an Oct. 3 report from the British Parliament, in 2017 and 2018, 285 people were killed with knives and other "sharp instruments". That was 34 percent more than the two years prior.

Overview of the increase in knife homicide rates in the United Kingdom.

Now, British lawmakers are facing pressure to act, and the push is coming from a somewhat unlikely source -- the Roman Catholic Church.

The Diocese of Rochester sent an open letter to Parliament, calling for a nationwide ban -- on pointed kitchen knives. It was titled “No Bloody Point”. In it, members of the clergy argue the invention of the fork has rendered pointed knives obsolete, so those knives now pose an unnecessary risk. Wounds from a rounded-edge knife, they argue, are less likely to be life-threatening.

The church is not alone.

A conservative lawmaker took a stab at knife-control by calling for GPS trackers to be installed on every knife handle sold in the U.K.

His proposal was roundly ridiculed on Twitter.

Every knife sold in the UK should have a gps tracker fitted in the handle. It’s time we had a national database like we do with guns. If you’re carrying it around you had better have a bloody good explanation, obvious exemptions for fishing etc.
— Scott Mann (@scottmann4NC) March 14, 2019

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