The law I refer to is s.139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988...so it is 20 years old....we have had these laws quite a while but they are only as good as the enforcement of them. New laws seem to be brought out just to make the public believe the government is doing something about the "newspaper" led knife crime campaign....in 2006 they introduced a law changing the legal age to sell a knife to a teenager from 16 up to 18 years of age. It makes no difference....

We have always had adequate laws....just an inadequate system. Then to cover up the inadequacies bad laws get written which in the end only affect the law abiding....this type of law is a good example....it can easily create a very stressful trial for a law abiding bushcrafter or hunter who gets charged because the police are under pressure to enforce the law and make the court determine if the reason for carrying the knife was lawful.

Whereas with a young offender....kids who are carrying knives because of gang membership or because they are involved with drugs and crime....they are too young to receive a custodial sentence and don't care what the law says...yet they are the prime offending category for knife crime. At best they get probation and are never taken out of circulation....so the system does'nt work in stopping this problem....and kids being stabbed by other kids is getting much more common as is kids stabbing adults....hence the press have been jumping on this and starting a campaign but they don't have any answers.