Crime Solicitors

In the UK, it is against the law to carry guns or knives and even carrying an imitation or replica gun is illegal. Anyone caught carrying, selling or buying such weapons is liable to prosecution, for example, it is against the law for a shop to sell a knife to anyone under 18 years of age; this includes even cutlery and kitchen knives. It is also illegal for a shop to sell an imitation gun to anyone under 18 or indeed to sell realistic replica guns to anyone at all. If you purchase any such item and you are in that age bracket you will be prosecuted and are liable to serve a prison sentence.

It is even illegal for adults to buy certain types of knives that have been classified as offensive weapons and are completely banned. They include butterfly knives, flick knives, also known as automatic knives and switchblades, and disguised knives, which are hidden, possibly in a fake phone case or a belt.

If children in a school are caught carrying knives it is not a purely school matter and the police will be called in. It is not a valid excuse to say that the knife is for self-protection and arrest and prosecution will certainly ensue. Even if it can be proved the knife has never been used, being in possession of it can still carry a prison sentence of anything up to four years. If the knife has been used and resulted in a fatality, a life sentence will result and you would serve at least 25 years behind bars. It is also possible to be prosecuted if someone was killed or injured by a knife when you were present, even if you did not wield the weapon yourself. This comes under the heading of ‘joint enterprise’ and you could be imprisoned for murder.

Carrying a knife can have a range of consequences and not just for the carrier. There are cases in the press seemingly every other week about stabbings; especially of young people and these have consequences for society as a whole. The local community will become suspicious and wary and other young people who live locally will feel that they also need to carry some sort of weapon for self-protection. The result is a downward spiral that will see more knives coming onto the street and more potential victims of a ‘knife culture’, where people become habituated to carrying weapons and are more likely to use them.

For a knife attack victim, the consequences are all too obvious; even a stab wound in a comparatively ‘harmless’ part of the body, such as a leg or arm can result in a fatality. Victims may have to endure the long-term physical effects of such an attack and severe trauma in the short-term.

Crime solicitors, such as Duncan Lewis, have more detailed information about the legal issues involved in carrying weapons and the consequences of knife crime, along with the various initiatives that have been set up to combat the problem.