Anti-gun activists like to point to Great Britain as a success story after its wide-reaching ban on handguns, but a stabbing epidemic has come to plague the country in the ensuing years. A report by the Office of National Statistics, which does not include Northern Ireland or Scotland, listed 285 knife-related homicides between March 2017 and March 2018—a record number.
The problem is especially pronounced among teenagers, who figure heavily as both perpetrators and victims. The Guardian reports that homicides committed with a knife by suspects under age 18 rose 77 percent from 2016 to 2018. Meanwhile, statistics from the National Health Service show that the number of children ages 16 or under who were treated for knife wounds rose 93 percent over five years.
For those who blame guns for violence—and who expect that banning firearms would be a magical solution—the example of Britain should be sobering. When you attack the instrument of violence instead of its underlying causes, killers will happily find a new instrument.
