Should ebay restrict knife sales

MuteWitness · 31-10-2005, 12:55

Should ebay restrict the knifes it sells on its website, if you search for knifes you will see lots of very dangerous looking kinfes which anyone could get hold of.

what are your views

coopster1974 · 31-10-2005, 13:04

Well from my upstairs window I can see the whole of the Don Valley.

Don_Kiddick · 31-10-2005, 13:06

brilliant!

No they shouldn't.

Knives don't kill, idiots do - idiots can use anything as weapons

I've got a fine collection of guns & knives & camo gear & i'm perfectly sane. I just like the way they smell.

Cyclone · 31-10-2005, 14:05

Quote:

Originally posted by f_g
Should ebay restrict the knifes it sells on its website, if you search for knifes you will see lots of very dangerous looking kinfes which anyone could get hold of.

what are your views

why ebay particularly? There are plenty of other websites and shops that sell knives. How about cooking knives, they'll do just as much damage, would you like to restrict the sale of them as well?

MuteWitness · 31-10-2005, 14:08

i dont want to restrict the sale of anything i was starting a debate, i was looking for a swiss army knife at the time.

Cyclone · 31-10-2005, 14:19

fair enough, it's unusual to post something like "Should X do Y" unless you were thinking that they should or someone else had suggested it. But if it's just a question then;

No they shouldn't. There are lots of other websites and shops which sell all sorts of knives. There was a spat in the news about 6 months ago where some researchers suggested that the sale of all pointed knives should be made illegal, as if people couldn't use other pointy objects as weapons. Banning things rarely solves anything, the banning of handguns has not had the effect of lowering handgun crime, the banning of knives would either be ineffective or annoy a hell of a lot of people.

robbie · 31-10-2005, 14:49

you can sometimes by atom bombs on e-bay. I'd restrict them before knives

it is quite easy for anyone to get hold of a knife really. I see no point in restricting it further than our current laws. A kitchen knife can do as much damage as a machete!

plus you can legally buy all kinds of decorative knives and swords

youwhatref · 31-10-2005, 15:21

Quote:

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick

I've got a fine collection of guns & knives & camo gear & i'm perfectly sane. I just like the way they smell.

LOL DonK

I'd say not, you can buy knives anywhere so restricting them on ebay will do no good. The people who buy thenm on ebay are proabbly the ones who have particular interests in them or who like the smell?????

depoix · 31-10-2005, 15:22

Quote:

Originally posted by f_g
Should ebay restrict the knifes it sells on its website, if you search for knifes you will see lots of very dangerous looking kinfes which anyone could get hold of.

what are your views

all knives are dangerous,its the fool holding it that creates the problem

i have several from my younger days that i still use when out camping fishing etc,as the law stands its illegal to openly carry one,so i would think if seen with it then arrests will follow.

if e bay didnt sell them there are many more outlets that do,so i suppose then that in fairness to e bay all other shops and outlets should be banned as well

Ann* · 31-10-2005, 15:32

I don't know whether this is part of the new law on knives or not, but our local Asda will not sell knives of any description to anyone under the age of 16....as if age has anything to do with the price of fish anyway

steev · 31-10-2005, 15:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
...I just like the way they smell.

**deep breath**

Gotta love the smell of army surplus on a morning...

I think that if someone wants to buy a knife to do someone some damage with they're not particularly going to go looking on eBay first are they?

It's getting a bit scary when a government can blanket-ban the sale/possession of anything that has a legitimate use. I remember (when I were-a-lad) our lollypop lady getting warned that the screwdriver she used to turn on/off the warning light construed an offensive weapon...

sally_sheff · 31-10-2005, 21:08

I think all weapons should be totally banned. Why would anyone sane want to collect such things?

weenireeni · 31-10-2005, 21:20

i dont understand how anyone under 16 can buy knives of ebay anyway! surely they dont have credit cards/paypal/cheque book, and if they did it by postal order, surely when it arrived in the post their mum might ask what the package was??!!!

medusa · 31-10-2005, 21:57

The day that I found a 50lb pull crossbow (with bolts) for sale on eBay I was so stunned that I didn't even report it- I was so convinced that it was a wind up.

Further thought convinced me that since I have some pretty good militaria myself (I have a lovey double headed battleaxe, which is blunted but would still cave in a skull if used in anger) and have never used them against anybody (except in the reenactment sense), then it really does come down to the people not the weapons.

If you think imaginatively, there are plenty of ways to kill/harm people with perfectly legal things (anything from a car to a brick to a carving knife), so the focus just HAS to be on the social aspects of violence.

We need to think not about the minority of people who commit violent crime, but about the majority who are loving, caring, hard-working productive people. Every under-16 in the country has access to something that they could use to cause harm. The fact that so few of them do means that we as a society are pretty good at providing reasons to live a good llife. Banning knife sales to kids is a basic, responsible move, but it's society that will stop them using other weapons, not laws.

Rich · 31-10-2005, 21:57

Yes, ban sales of weapons to idiots and Chavs... Which potentially means an outright ban cos realistically anyone could potentially be an idiot or a Chav... Except me, contrary to certain beliefs I don't fall into either of those categories.

JoeP · 31-10-2005, 22:30

Quote:

Originally posted by sally_sheff
I think all weapons should be totally banned. Why would anyone sane want to collect such things?

Oddly enough most people who choose to collect weapons are not going to use them.

There are exceptions, but most people who use a knife or a gun on another people are not using a weapon from a collection; they're using something they've got as a one off with the intention of, one day, causing harm with it.

Now, as to why someone sane should want to collect such things, having handled a few weapons in my life - hand guns, the odd sword, rifles and machine guns (most of the guns deactivated / blank firers for film set use) they are quite fascinating. I can understand why people might wish to collect them. It's like warplanes or tanks; they're quite often gorgeous pieces of machinery, the appearance of which belies their function.

Maybe it's a guy thing....but military weapons have, throughout history, been at the pinacle of technological development for the period of history in question.

Back to the question....

As for the sale of knives - well, how IS a website supposed to determine age when people under 18 can get hold of debit cards or credit cards? Many porn sites use the possession of a debit or credit card as a means of determining age; it's clearly not working.

And where do you stop? I remember when I was a teenager I belonged to a plastic modelling society at school; I frequently bought my 'toolkit' in to school which included a craft knife with various blades. To stop knife sales in order to try and prevent knife crime is useless. Kids wanting to stab someone will raid the kitchen drawer or dad's tool box. It's like gun sales; gun crimes have increased since the knee jerk legislation passed by the Government in the aftermath of Dunblane and Hungerford.

You may stop people buying guns, but let me tell you a secret....the bad guys don't MIND buying a weapon from an illegal source, and people wanting a knife to kill with won't necessarily go to 'Bill's Knife Emporium' to buy one where their ID will be checked.

The bottom line is to come down hard on the criminals rather than producing easy, sound-bite friendly legislation that has no effect on the real problem.

Joe

medusa · 31-10-2005, 22:52

Quote:

Originally posted by JoeP
Oddly enough most people who choose to collect weapons are not going to use them.

Maybe it's a guy thing....but military weapons have, throughout history, been at the pinacle of technological development for the period of history in question.

Joe

I don't think it's a guy thing, but then I'm pretty sure that in a number of things I'm an atypical woman (how many women do you know that have had their own lathe- and I've just bought a lovely nail gun, but there I go again saying guy things!).

I don't collect weapons to look at, they're all hangovers from the days when I trained to fight with them in War of the Roses reenactments (and there's another atypically female thing to do).

It is important to state that I'm very careful in where my weaponry is kept such that anybody gaining access to my houses is extremely unlikely to be able to find and steal them. They are not kept on show and as such wouldn't be a target to opportunist thieves.

owdlad · 01-11-2005, 10:04

I agree, Chavs shouldn't be let loose with knives, or sharp sticks (blunt ones as well come to that) and knives are a fact of life so banning the sale of them on ebay isn't going to make much difference to the underclass.

OH BTW

http://www.zdnet.com/5208-11048-0.ht...277804&start=9

Don_Kiddick · 01-11-2005, 10:08

It's a fact of life that the one's who shout loudest about something are often the guiltiest, so all those who want the banning of knives are likely to be the next ones in the Suns headlines

willman · 01-11-2005, 10:24

i think the "powers that be" should pXXs off & leave everyone to make up their own minds.
ownership is not illegal so why ban the sale of them.

nanny state gone mad.