3 wk. ago • 86%

Germany tightens knife laws as pressure grows after mass stabbing

www.bbc.com Germany tightens knife laws as pressure grows after mass stabbing

The German government announces weapons and asylum changes after deadly attack in Solingen.

38 comments

Ah yes, the criminals that were already carrying illegally sized knives will totally be prevented from doing that by further decreasing the legal limit. Fucking toddler logic. This gives big "There is no crime in germany because crime is illegal" energy

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- Unlike guns, knives are actually helpful in a lot of everyday situations. So it's obviously terrible that politicians keep using the politician's syllogism ("we must do something - this is something - we must do this!"). Over the long run, we ruin law as a whole with often expensive, symbolic additions whose negative consequences massively outweigh the positives. And the acting politicians definitely know what they're doing is wrong—they're reacting in a (predictably failing) bid to appease populists. And I am not sure how we'll ever get out of this, because in the moment this logic is definitely appealing, even though immediately past that moment, it becomes clearer how harmful it is.
  
  Otoh, the same politicians also currently discuss his to fix actual issues, such as the social-media radicalization topic that has sweeped over us in various forms over the past years, with anti-Covid-measures movements, Islamist movements, pro-Russian movements, and radical right movements (there are tons of convergence points between all these).
  
  13
  
  It's an outcome that comes from people demanding that something be done because they think we can somehow live in a perfectly safe world.
  
  Shit happens, no matter how many laws are passed no country is going to never have violent crime or mass killings never ever never. Yet the people still demand their politicians do something even if there's nothing useful that can be done.
  
  3
- Also, "Cannabis is [was] forbidden because it is [was] an illegal drug."
  
  9
  
  Cannabis isn't broccoli!!!1!!
  
  5
  
  but, "we already have two volksdrogen we don't need a third one"
  
  3
- Will be interesting to see if knife laws like this have a measurable impact, it could serve as a proxy to give us better data about what may and may not work elsewhere, for example firearms in the US.
  
  2
  
  Just look at UK to see how much they don't do.
  
  9
- ~~Shouldn't we learn something from the Brits? They basically outlawed knives, yet the problem with knife fights is getting worse.~~ Someone else in this thread kinda debunked my statement, so there's that!
  
  2
  
  Its not debunked, this is about terrorism and laws don't work for terrorism. We know UK isn't important enough to have a actual terrorism problem, but we are and shitty populist law changes won't help at all.
  
  -3
- Crime doesn't happen if it's not reported.
  
  1
"German government -as always- rejects solutions (or even honest discussions) in favour of bullshit symbolism pandering to right populists"

Fixed the headline...

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- German government -as always- rejects solutions (or even honest discussions)
  
  This is already enough for that fixed headline.
  
  7
- Not really. This was demanded by the opposition (conservatives).
  
  0
  
  A "conservative" opposition that made a sharp turn to right-wing populism and is spending the years since they got voted out by parroting far-right AfD narratives while also adding their own take on desinformation at every corner... and sadly the media has failed for quite some time to provide context and is only slowly waking up and starting to publish fact checks for all their bullshit demand and statements.
  
  So you might think you found a problem with my statement. But there isn't one. The former center-right conservatives are indeed the right populists I was talking about. Because that is exactly what they degerated to the moment they lost power.
  
  For reference see for example: here, here or here
  
  That's your so-called "conservative opposition" right there...
  
  4
Yeah cause we all know that criminals respect the laws.

Like seriously, look at England to see how great this woks!.. Oh wait it absolutely doesn't even with absolutely draconian punishments for violations there are still very very regular stabbings but now the bad guys even switched to fucking acid...

Who in the world thinks this is a good idea?

8
- The UK has the joint lowest levels of knife homicide in the world.
  
  (Tied with Monaco at 0.08 per 100k people)
  
  Source: United Nations Global Study on Homicide
  
  Knife attacks in the UK are so low that when it does happen, it makes national news, which paradoxically leads to the impression of knife crime being very high.
  
  9
  
  Yes and the attackers now use acid and other stablery. That don't end up in statistics so UK people can show how great everything is.
  
  London feels like straight out of 1984, cameras everywhere. Biggest ew imaginable.
  
  -6
- Japan does. See the swords and firearms act. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Do I think some of it is dumb? Yep. Does it give a framework for handling people carrying types and/or lengths of blades in a way that punishes them more harshly and discourages people? It sure seems like it.
  
  4
  
  Yup. Japan has a knife homicide rates pretty much as low as the UK and Monaco. Clearly they're doing something right.
  
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  The framework already exists in Germany and it won't discourage terrorists, thats the fucking point. This was a terrorist attack. Japan doesn't have this terrorism threat, they have homicidal people and insane people, thats something different and our police already has more than enough rights to handle these situations. The knife the attacker used was also illigal anyway, did it stop them? Doesn't seem like it.
  
  -2
I can't find anything about tightening knife laws in the article. Was that removed or am I blind?

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