UK to introduce new ‘zombie-style’ knife ban
In January 2024 it was revealed under new legislation that dangerous zombie-style knives and machetes will be banned in England and Wales in attempts to keep weapons off the streets and help keep young people safe.
The UK government urge anyone with these dangerous weapons to voluntarily hand them into a knife surrender bin before the official ban comes into place this summer.
Zombie knives were initially banned in 2016 in England, Wales and Scotland, but the new legislation aims to crack down and clear the knives off the streets completely.
In England, since 2019, police have taken 120,000 knives off the streets through stop and search and other targeted police action.
In Scotland, statistics released in 2023 showed that 58% of all homicides were related to knife crime. This statistic has remained at an average since 2018.
Scotland currently have a surrender and compensation scheme; this allows those who are in possession of prohibited weapons or knives to hand them over and receive money back for it.
This scheme is yet to be put into place in England and Wales.
A zombie knife is defined as ‘having a cutting edge, a serrated edge and images or words that suggest that it is to be used for the purpose of violence’.
Since the first ban on knives many were finding loopholes around it, as without words or images, the knives couldn’t be classed as a ‘zombie knife’.
The new legislation coming into play later this year states that ‘zombie-style knives with no threatening words or images’ will also be banned.
Over the years Scotland have seen a slight decrease in knife crime as in 2019-20, 89 crimes of handling an offensive weapon occurred within a prison and a further 146 occurred within a school. This compares to 127 occurring in a prised and 127 occurring in a school in 2018-19.
This could be seen as both increasing and decreasing as knife handling in prisons has decreased but in schools, where children are supposed to be safe, has increased even although it is illegal for someone under the age of 18 to buy even a kitchen knife.
It could be argued that zombie or zombie styles knives should not be banned in the whole of the UK.
As it could be said that banning zombie knives won’t prevent knife crime, almost everyone in the UK has a kitchen full of knives.
It may also be argued that owning knives like these are used for protection, it may make those living alone feel safer. However, this can be counteracted as with this style of knives being banned, they would feel safer knowing that no one should have them.
