You can’t make this sh%$ up.
LANCASHIRE Constabulary has joined forces with the ground-breaking national anti-knife crime campaign ‘Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife’, as the force’s knife amnesty comes to an end.
Since the amnesty began at the end of August, more than 800 knives have been handed in across the county – including swords, machetes and commando knives. The amnesty was extended for a further week owing to its success.
Lancashire officers have now given their backing to a national initiative designed to raise awareness of knife crime and encourage the surrender of dangerous weapons.
The British Ironwork Centre, which is coordinating the project, intends to use the collected knives to create a 20 feet high guardian angel sculpture in memory of those whose lives have so tragically been lost.
Despite the amnesty ending this week, police say people can continue to hand in any knife at any police station with a front counter as well being able to drop them into the designated bins.
Police are looking to keep the bins and extend the number of locations to include job centres, community centres and leisure centres.
The “Save a Life, Surrender your Knife” campaign is creating and providing bespoke knife collection bins to be located in the cities around the UK.
Detective Chief Inspector Steve Dowson said: “We are keen to raise awareness of the devastating impact of knife crime and to reduce the number of families affected so we have decided to keep the knife bins indefinitely.
"While projects encouraging the surrender of knives are not a single solution to violence, they have an important role to play in inspiring communities to get behind education and preventative measures.
"Such campaigns show a desire to address local concerns and Lancashire Police is keen to throw our weight behind them in support.
http://www.lancashire.police.uk/about-us/news/save-a-life--surrender-your-knife
Of course, this is not a new idea for the UK:
"One idea, first proposed in 2005, is a response to a grisly mundane truth expressed by Met chief Ian Blair this week - that “the most common knife involved in these deaths is a knife from a kitchen”.
The proposal came from three emergency medicine specialists, and it’s a simple one: getting rid of the points on the ends of longer kitchen knives.
Drs Emma Hern, Will Glazebrook and Mike Beckett wrote an editorial in the British Medical Journal, suggesting that since “many assaults are impulsive”, government action could “drastically reduce the availability” of a “potentially lethal weapon”.
