DOK
05-30-2005, 11:27 AM
Docs Want Kitchen Knives Banned
Sunday, May 29, 2005
There is a menace lurking in British homes — the common kitchen knife.
Citing a rash of stabbings across Britain, three physicians wrote in a British Medical Journal article published Friday that the large pointed knife beloved by chefs both professional and amateur was needlessly deadly and should be replaced by safer, blunter counterparts.
"The long pointed kitchen knife is an easily available, potentially lethal weapon, particularly in the domestic setting," wrote lead author Dr. Emma Hern of West Middlesex University Hospital (search) in London.
Short knives, Hern and her colleagues Drs. Will Glazebrook and Mike Beckett wrote, generally caused only superficial wounds, but long pointed blades slip into human flesh in a way akin to "cutting into a ripe melon."
The doctors proposed a simple solution — outlawing pointed choppers and slicers.
"Government action to ban the sale of such knives," they wrote, "would drastically reduce their availability over the course of a few years."
Reaction from professional chefs in Britain was less than enthusiastic.
"Kitchen knives are designed for a purpose," the head of the Edinburgh, Scotland, Restaurateurs Association told The Scotsman newspaper. "It would be like asking a surgeon to perform an operation with a bread knife instead of a scalpel."
In America, where deadly weapons tend to be more sophisticated, leading authorities thought the proposed British ban was cute.
"Are they going to have everybody using plastic knives and forks and spoons in their own homes, like they do in airlines?" Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association (search), asked The New York Times.
"Can sharp stick control be far behind?" wondered LaPierre's erstwhile opponent, Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (search).
Sunday, May 29, 2005
There is a menace lurking in British homes — the common kitchen knife.
Citing a rash of stabbings across Britain, three physicians wrote in a British Medical Journal article published Friday that the large pointed knife beloved by chefs both professional and amateur was needlessly deadly and should be replaced by safer, blunter counterparts.
"The long pointed kitchen knife is an easily available, potentially lethal weapon, particularly in the domestic setting," wrote lead author Dr. Emma Hern of West Middlesex University Hospital (search) in London.
Short knives, Hern and her colleagues Drs. Will Glazebrook and Mike Beckett wrote, generally caused only superficial wounds, but long pointed blades slip into human flesh in a way akin to "cutting into a ripe melon."
The doctors proposed a simple solution — outlawing pointed choppers and slicers.
"Government action to ban the sale of such knives," they wrote, "would drastically reduce their availability over the course of a few years."
Reaction from professional chefs in Britain was less than enthusiastic.
"Kitchen knives are designed for a purpose," the head of the Edinburgh, Scotland, Restaurateurs Association told The Scotsman newspaper. "It would be like asking a surgeon to perform an operation with a bread knife instead of a scalpel."
In America, where deadly weapons tend to be more sophisticated, leading authorities thought the proposed British ban was cute.
"Are they going to have everybody using plastic knives and forks and spoons in their own homes, like they do in airlines?" Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association (search), asked The New York Times.
"Can sharp stick control be far behind?" wondered LaPierre's erstwhile opponent, Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (search).