Britain Going Off the Tracks: I blame the Scouts

I won't trouble myself too much with specifics because specifics chap my hide, but for about 20 years now England has had some pretty tough gun control laws on the books. You need a license from the government and you need to justify why you need to own a gun. Self-defense isn't a permissible reason. This is item a.

On to item b. Steve writes that Scouts in Britain will no longer be able to carry knives when they go camping. Yeah, that's just dumb. But surely there's a reason!

Modern Britain’s knife culture, including the rise in fatal stabbings, has been cited by troop leaders...
Dave Budd, who trains Scouts on the safe use of a knife, said that the rise in knife crime — up by 50 per cent in just one year — had made “clarification” of the guidance necessary. ..
"The series of high-profile fatal stabbings highlighted a growing knife culture in the UK."

So you're saying that there's been a rise in knifings, eh? Isn't that curious? If I didn't know better, I'd say that maybe bad guys will find a way to hurt other people, no matter what lame rules retarded do-gooders put on the books. So they'll ban all knives and there will be a rise in grapefruit spoon violence.

Oh, and in case you're curious, "Gun crime is up by more than half and there are more than 100 serious knife crimes each day, with fatal stabbings having reached the highest level on record." (link) But by all means, make sure those Scouts are disarmed!