One of my issues with this type of decision (or legislation to similar effect), is that it so often is a cosmetic gesture that does not address the real underlying problem.
In the case of increasing knife violence, the problem is not knives, its the people who are using them and their reasons for doing so. Same goes for guns.
I do support reasonable restrictions, for example not wanting people to go around a city with a sword at their hip, or a rifle slung over their back. However, I dispair in these situations where there is an appearance of decisive or strong action that, in fact, has no real effect on the problem it supposedly addresses.
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