Why Do Children Feel the Need to Carry a Knife in the 21st Century
An essay I done a while ago,hope you like it.
So are shopkeepers to blame? After all they seem to be the culprits arming our youngsters with these weapons. They should be strict and obey the law; otherwise the death toll will continue to rise.
Recently there has been a knife amnesty in the UK; during an amnesty people can drop their knives into special bins inside police stations. If they choose to give up their knives they will not get in any trouble with the police. In some areas secure bins may be in place in other locations, like schools, youth clubs and churches. A five-week long amnesty began in May 2006. Police said they were going to be much tougher on people who they catch with knives once it ended, as they have had the chance to surrender them. Anyone carrying an offensive weapon in a public place after the amnesty could be imprisoned for up to six months and receive a £5,000 fine. In 1995 a knife amnesty saw 40,000 weapons handed over to police, following the death of a school teacher called Philip Lawrence.
I discovered a school in Grimsby has introduced airport style metal detectors to search students for weapons. I was at once instantly supporting this. Tollbar Business and Enterprise College says it does not have a knife problem but has introduced the scanner as a safety measure. The college is 10 miles away from Birkbeck School where teenager Luke Walmsley was stabbed to death. Pupils will only be scanned if they are suspected of carrying a dangerous weapon. Students at the college think the handheld detectors are a good idea.
“Some people might be shocked but I think if they actually got the point explained to them of it they’d realise that it’s good” says Tom, 14. Heather, who is also 14, reckons, “It doesn’t necessarily mean that they think you’ve got something on you, you just feel fine and that you’re helping everybody else.” But Bradley, 11, didn’t think the school needed to introduce the searches as “no-one really carries knives that I’ve heard of but I think it’s a good idea.” But perhaps this school is the example that should be followed. Possibly if more precautions were taken more lives could be saved.
Why in the 21st century do children feel the need to carry a knife and what action should be taken was the question I put forward at the beginning of this speech. Of course there is no ABC answer to this. There will be a wide variety of conclusions people will come to. The answer would be too complex for any one person to answer apart from the beholder, for only they know why they do it. However, the actions taken, for example, upping the age of criminal responsibility or a knife amnesty are possibly not the right ways to go. Perhaps the way forward is families working closer together, as we have come to know that it is often people coming from troubled backgrounds who turn to knives. Maybe not. All we do know is children carrying knives is definitely not acceptable in today’s society. The law should be changed and obeyed so children cannot get access to these killer objects. Something will have to be done in the near future if we are to rectify this problem. Children and knives DO NOT go hand in hand and IS NOT acceptable in today’s society, action MUST be taken.
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Post Commentjohn barnes
On May 20, 2008 at 5:31 pm
very very good you sexy devil lol
anonymous
On September 12, 2008 at 11:25 am
i completely agree with you,nice article.
Ernie
On October 9, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I strongly disagree i would carry one because i have to walk around on the streets to get to places. i would not feel confident when carrying a knife i simply understand that if worse comes to worse and i try to run from lets say a mugger and he catches me i cannot defend with my fists cause im not the strongest person out there i fully understand the responsibilities of carrying a lethal weapon and i believe your article is based on the belief that kids in this generation are foolish. But im not gonna disagree at the fact many children are foolish and want to carry it to feel stronger or get respect but i for one am not. (: very interesting article glad you wrote it
TJ
On October 14, 2008 at 8:38 am
i really liked your essay, people don’t need to carry knives around with them, what happened to using pepper spray like the good old days???
RE: Ernie
On October 26, 2008 at 9:24 pm
so ernie you did read the part where he said that the knife can be used against you? Theres alot more safer options.a knife is not the answer!
RE:RE:ernie
On July 25, 2009 at 7:58 am
So what would you suggest something like a knife taht can be used against you would not anything you use to protect you can also be used to hurt you.
( except maybe a cup and bulletproof vest )
Jack
On August 21, 2009 at 9:32 pm
You make a number of points, but despite your intellectual tone, this is still a reactionary response. Children get into fights all the time, but is anyone teaching them defense, or proper respect for the blade? A knife isn’t a fashion accessory, it is a tool, it is a weapon, and it can be used for defense as well as offense. Granted, one can be disarmed, but any properly trained fighter would make a hard work of it. And by then, any mugger would lose heart if he had to fight for it. This “knife” problem isn’t the fault of the blade, or the children. It’s the fault of the adults, parents and teachers who aren’t giving them proper instruction in defense. There was a time when men of honor would prefer to settle their own affairs, with words and reason, and with a contest of skill secondly. Violence as a last resort. These children grow up in such a culture, where they must defend themselves to save face, but they lack the proper upbringing and assertiveness to asses the situations they’re faced with, and thus go straight to their blades. They have no one to teach them otherwise, and that’s where such tragedies arise. Teach them. That’s all it will take to prevent further violence. Teach them respect for their peers, themselves, and their blades. Maybe then they will forget their fears.
Red
On October 19, 2009 at 3:06 am
You know, you can stab someone with a sharpened pencil, should we ban pencils?
podtherod
On March 3, 2010 at 1:06 pm
first of all i am very thankful to all who read this and im glad you enjoyed it.
secondly i am grateful to those of you who took the time to comment… especially those with a well thought out and i would even go as far to say produce a well structured counter-argument!
You must remember though this was an essay i done a long time ago, i think the criteria was to produce an argument for a given issue, hence the complete one sidedness.
As far as my personal opinion on the matter i would agree that each situation and each person is different, some may carry a knife as a tool (e.g. for fishing) and others may carry it but know how to use it, but that still doesnt mean its right.
I think the government wastes too much money on stupid things like for example the campaign to allow knives and guns to be handed in to the police without punishment.yes this may have saved countless lives,may have steered people away from gang cultures but it may have onlt been a temporary solution. i am reminded of an old quote, “give a man a fish he will eat for a day, teach a man how to fish and he will never go hungry”.
maybe a more permanent solution would have been for the goernment to invest their money into self defence courses.
thank-you again for reading,and please leave a comment
Neill Johnston
On March 9, 2010 at 3:24 am
A lot of kids these days, carry knives for safety purposes, to protect themselves. Today’s society is not as safe as it used to be, during the earlier years, when we were their age.It is a totally different society today, then it was many years ago for us.
And especially with ALL these youth gangs, is another cause for these young kids to carry knives with them. Also, these kids are getting killed at a younger age, then us adults are.
Ariel
On March 19, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Knives are only the single most useful tool man has devised and have thousands of uses. Why WOULDN’T someone, responsible minor or otherwise, want to carry one? They are an amzingly useful item.
It’s incredible how idiotic some Brits sound these days. I’m surprised you can even take care of yourselves.
podtherod
On October 23, 2010 at 10:55 pm
RE;Ariel
Yes no-one is doubting how useful they are but we live in a civilised country and on a day-to-day basis (unless you are Bear Grylls or Ray Mears) a knife is not necessary in your pocket. Most people commenting on this have provided an argument but instead you insult, very mature of you mate,do you carry a knife on a daily basis?
I wrote this article about 3 years ago now, has anyones view changed in that time?Have the laws changed?Has the government done anything in this time? One thing I notice is the age at which serious crimes are being committed (on occasion) can be even younger than before.
One fact is people still search about children carrying knives, 5000 people have viewed this article,wether it be worried parents or children themselves, the issue hasn’t gone away…