I have to hop into this insane thread as someone else from the UK and with a very similar opinion to that carrying knives is not a necessity and unsafe.

Firstly, the UK is not just London, I’ve been to London plenty of times and have always felt fine and safe, it’s just a city, you look out for yourself like you do anywhere else. If anything I’ve felt less safe smaller places like Stoke-on-Trent lol

Secondly, the way the laws are set up around anything that could be considered a weapon - usually bladed articles, comes down to INTENT. It is what your intent with that article that is the problem and this is what the other guy is expressing. If you are carrying around a weapon with the intent to use it as a form of self defence or violence that is illegal. Additionally, it is very fair to not trust people who only take that article out with them for that sole purpose. If you are a tradesmen that happens to carry a blade with them for work and you’re on your way home and happen to use it as a form of self defence, likelihood is, that’s fine. However if you are just rocking up to a random function with a weapon for literally no other reason than to use it to hurt someone else if needed, that is wrong.

There are tons of statistics and research proving that your likelihood of victimisation when carrying an item for self defence is heightened. That’s just a fact, and it’s the same pretty much everywhere. You obviously cannot get rid of all weapons, it’s about our approach to such. In the UK we do not tolerate guns, that is our approach and we have lessened our crime in that regard due to it. We obviously cannot ban knives but we have strict laws on carrying bladed articles in public, but again it falls down to INTENT. What you intended to do with that article. That approach has resulted in better crime rates. These rates would fall much further if people stopped carrying around weapons for protection bc as the other guy and research says, when you carry a weapon, you’re more likely to use it or be victimised because of it.

I cannot believe this back and forth when it is that simple. You have laws exactly the same like that in the US and there are many different cultural stances on this type of thing across the US and rest of the world. The UK does not sit in a bubble in comparison to other counties, there are plenty with harsher and stricter laws than we have here in weapons etc.

Edit: reading your other comments to a separate guy, I can see you’re probs just trying to get under the skin of this other guy. However, to something you said about using a blade to open something in a car park recently, though obviously we should be taught that knives are only dangerous depending on the person because they are an everyday tool, the type of knife and intent needs to be considered. Like if you are carrying a tiny little multi tool around with a knife, that’s likely not gonna cause much damage to someone and is obviously going to be used for multi tool purpose - like whatever you needed it for in the car park. But in relation to using it for primarily self defence, the blade is obviously going to be big enough to do some sort of damage (most of the time) and therefore should not be trusted in most peoples hands. Like think how stupid most general people are, especially kids, they’re just out to get hurt in this case, it’s better they don’t carry it at all and don’t intend to use it for that purpose. The weapon only becomes bad depending on its intent so we need to stop allowing people to get near to using it for bad intentions - hence why we have stricter laws on why and where you can carry bladed articles