Close window | View original article
The Wall Street Journal of March 30, 2009 page 2 article "Man Kills Two Sisters Before Being Shot By Police" says:
A man fatally stabbed his 17-year-old sister, decapitated his 5-year-old sister during her birthday party and then headed toward his 9-year-old sister before officers shot and killed him amid what their chief described as "a killing field."
Haven't enough people died from crazed killers getting their hands on knives and running amok? It's intolerable that there are so many deadly knives lying around where crazy people can get their hands on them and murder defenseless victims.
We can't let this carnage go on! A wave of violent crimes using knives is sweeping England; let us take warning from their unhappy experience and prevent a similar bloodbath here. It's time for our government to assume its responsibility and control knives.
Of course, it is not feasible simply to ban knives outright; after all, there are unfortunately a great many already in circulation. The essential first step is to demand that all dangerous knives be registered with the police.
The TSA has a finely-crafted definition of which knives are so dangerous that they cannot be carried on airplanes and which knives are harmless. Common sense dictates that a knife which is too dangerous on an airplane is too dangerous anywhere else either.
Thus, the Knife Registration Act should state that any knife violating TSA regulations must be registered. It shall be a misdemeanor for any unidentified person to possess an unregistered knife which violates TSA carry-on regulations. Each person desiring to register a knife must present a valid government-issued ID card.
The Knife Registration Act must include provision for police and other authorized authorities to tell one knife from another so that a knife used in a crime may be associated with the person to whom it is registered. When citizens bring their knives to the police department, post office, town office, or other duly-constituted registration location, the registrar shall inscribe a serial number on each and every knife. The registrar must enter the description of each knife along with its serial number into the National Knife Registry database along with the responsible person's name, address, citizenship, type of identification, and the ID number on their official identification card. It shall be a misdemeanor for a knife owner to change residence without notifying the Knife Registrar within six days of the change of address.
Once the National Knife Registry is established, it shall be illegal for anyone to sell, give, or otherwise convey a knife to any person who has not passed a background check. It shall be a misdemeanor for any knife vendor to hand over any dangerous knife without ensuring that the prospective knife owner passes the background check, and duly registers the knife transfer with the appropriate authority.
A great many knives are sold in such unofficial venues as garage sales and flea markets; while such sales need not be banned, the seller and buyer must be required to go to an authorized knife vendor to register the transfer.
A knife is like few other devices sprung from the minds of man; it has no purpose other than cutting and slicing. While appropriate in the hands of government-approved and licensed professional chefs and other public officials, in the hands of untrained users a knife becomes a deadly weapon even if only by accident, to say nothing of intentional violent crimes like the horrific example given earlier. The blood of thousands of innocent victims of knife crimes cries out for Change We Can Believe In!
How many more must suffer death or dismemberment before our government stops shirking its duty to protect unarmed innocents from violence?
In other news, ABC reports :
As the nation gets a clearer picture of two killers who have made headlines in recent days -- one near Pittsburgh, one in Binghamton, N.Y. -- some are wondering whether Americans have too much access to guns.