British experts seek kitchen knife control

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LONDON, May 27 (UPI) -- Alarmed by the rise of stabbing cases in Britain, some experts are urging a ban on the sale of long, pointed kitchen knives.

But in the United States, the plea is only causing bi-partisan amusement, reports the New York Times.

In an editorial in the British Medical Journal, authors Emma Hern, Will Glazebrook and Mike Beckett of London's West Middlesex University Hospital said there should be laws calling for knives with rounded, blunt tips.

The researchers said the rate of violent crime in Britain rose nearly 18 percent from 2003 to 2004, and in the first two weeks of 2005, 15 killings and 16 nonfatal attacks involved stabbings.

Wayne LaPierre with the U.S. National Rifle Association asked: "Are they going to have everybody using plastic knives and forks and spoons in their own homes, like they do in airlines?"

Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, joked, "Can sharp stick control be far behind?"

One chef compared the editorial to efforts to ban un-pasteurized cheese. "Where there is no risk," he said, "there is no pleasure."