It’s been a while since we checked in on weapon policy across the pond, but with Americans fresh off celebrating the Glorious Fourth — and our independence from the British Crown — the timing couldn’t be more fitting. Our former rulers, it seems, are waging an ever-escalating war… on kitchen utensils.
Britain’s latest crusade against “violent crime” includes banning so-called “ninja swords” (yes, that’s the official term) and launching what the government proudly calls its “most ambitious surrender scheme yet” — a nationwide knife amnesty, complete with mobile drop-off vans and 37 surrender bins across London, Greater Manchester, and the West Midlands.
These initiatives fall under the umbrella of Operation Sceptre, a recurring police campaign that includes “knife sweeps” in parks and schools, sting operations against retailers, and cheerful public service slogans like “Bin a Knife, Save a Life.” The public is urged to drop off blades anonymously — but not before carefully packaging them, hiding them from view, and reading legal instructions to avoid arrest on the way. Because yes, even participating in the amnesty wrong can be a crime.
“There is no excuse for carrying a knife,” one police official declared. “Anyone caught with a knife will be arrested and put before the courts.”
No good deed goes unpenalized.
Despite the Home Office’s breathless claims of progress, evidence that knife amnesties have any lasting impact is… thin. A 2019 briefing from the U.K.’s College of Policing found that amnesties tend to have “limited or short-term” effects and don’t address the actual motivations behind knife carrying. A 2007 study reviewing a national amnesty that collected nearly 90,000 knives found it removed just 0.0041% of all kitchen knives in the U.K. — and even that estimate assumed every household owned just one.
“As long as there is unsliced bread,” the study concluded, “opportunities for knife crime will exist.”
Even worse, the bins themselves have become hazards. In 2023, a knife surrender bin outside a police station was reportedly so overfilled that zombie knives were spilling out of it — ripe for the picking. As one lawyer noted, “You could just reach in, grab a knife, and go on your way.”
And yet, British officials keep doubling down. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is now considering a ban on pointed kitchen knives, citing researchers (and yes, clergy) who insist these tools have “no practical value” in modern homes.
This, from the nation that once recognized the right of peaceful self-defense in its 1689 English Bill of Rights, which explicitly protected the right to keep and bear arms. That right remained undisturbed by Parliament for over 200 years — until recently.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., even as the Second Amendment faces its own attacks, Americans can still own a pocketknife, dice an onion, and reenact Enter the Ninja without violating state security laws. That’s no small freedom.
So, as we finish our leftover hot dogs and fireworks fizzle out, take a moment to reflect: the country we broke away from is now criminalizing the kitchen drawer — and calling it progress.
