Want to play Samurai? Don't do it in Britain...

[K Frame]

LONDON (Reuters) - The government said Wednesday it would ban the sale of samurai swords because the weapons had been used in a number of serious, high-profile attacks.

The Home Office said the swords would be added to the Offensive Weapons Order from April next year, meaning they could not be imported, sold or hired.

However collectors of genuine Japanese swords and those used by martial arts enthusiasts would be exempt from the ban.

"In the wrong hands, samurai swords are dangerous weapons," Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said.

"We recognize it is the cheap, easily available samurai swords which are being used in crime and not the genuine more expensive samurai swords which are of interest to collectors and martial arts enthusiasts."

The Association of Chief Police Officers said the swords were not a common weapon but they had been used in a number of significant incidents.

In 2, Robert Ashman murdered a Liberal Democrat councilor at the offices of Cheltenham MP Nigel Jones, who was also seriously hurt in the attack.

A year earlier, Eden Strang seriously wounded 11 people when he went on the rampage with a samurai sword at a Roman Catholic Church near his home in Thornton Heath, south London

[Manedwolf]

So they're just going to ban actual swords made for sworn Samurai during the Japanese feudal period? 

Seriously, if someone is caught by this stupid law because they had one in their house already, they should challenge the defintion of a "samurai sword".

And if they're trying to say "katana", what about a ninja-to, or a nagitnata, or...

Now maybe the criminals will just switch to hand-and-a-half's or claymores instead.

[CAnnoneer]

The consequence of disarmament. People still commit the same crimes. They just commit them with different tools. When these worthless idiotic socialist wankers outlaw swords, the same will be done with machete, then axes, then gardening tools. Then, they will have to outlaw kitchen utensils, wire, fertilizer, and cosmetics. Finally, they will outlaw fists and feet. Incidentally, the commies back in the days of the Soviet Block did outlaw martial arts instruction for the common folk.

Pray tell, what is not "a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands"?

Total tossers.

[HankB]

Hmmm . . . they're banning samurai swords, so I guess things like   the shorter wakizashis which could legally be carried by common folk like shopkeepers will still be OK, right? 

[Manedwolf]

Also?

A year earlier, Eden Strang seriously wounded 11 people when he went on the rampage with a samurai sword at a Roman Catholic Church near his home in Thornton Heath, south London

My solution:



If some loon went around slashing at people with a sword in front of me, sorry, SIG beats sword.
And yes, I know it's not an option across the pond.

Once upon a time, someone would have just whipped out a Webley and "put a stop to such unpleasantries".

Oh well.

[Creeping Incrementalism]

I took one of those cheap imitation (not sharp) samurai swords out to the desert one day to see if I could split bullets with it.  It split multiple 22s and multiple 1 oz. 12 GA shotgun slugs easily.  Next I tried FMJ 223, but I didn't have the sword set quite right--previous shots had knocked it around, and it was only propped up with rocks--and the first bullet just barely hit the broad side and snapped the blade in half.

You can order that kind of thing off the Internet pretty cheaply.  You guys should try splitting bullets with one, its fun.

[Bigjake]

"In the wrong hands, samurai swords are dangerous weapons,"

within the next five years, it will read like this:

"In the wrong hands, cricket bat thingers are dangerous weapons,"

[Thor]

Sai  were once used as garden implements....... are they next ??

[Manedwolf]

Hell with that, a scythe can be lethal, you know!

[jefnvk]

I'd take a $5.88 machette from wally-world any day of the week over a Chinese knock-off sword.

Heck, I'm looking at a half dozen thigns I'd use over one of those POS.