# Brits: What's a zombie knife? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 18, 2018, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315 "2018-06-18T13:19:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/61 "2018-06-20T00:21:29Z")
Apparently the idea is that if you ban everything even the least reminiscent of violence, you will create a society of pacifists, like something from the SF movie “Demolition Man”. :rolleyes: Hasn’t this been discredited yet, by sociological studies if not by observation and common sense? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/62 "2018-06-20T00:35:15Z")
> **[Randall Made Knives » Combat Companion](https://www.randallknives.com/knives/combat-companion/)** Buy quality and you need buy only once. Anything Randall makes is a better tool, better weapon, and more beautiful objet d’art than those POS flea market zombie knives. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/63 "2018-06-20T00:47:04Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > [Randall Made Knives – RANDALLMADE KNIVES™, INC.](http://www.randallknives.com/.com) > > Buy quality and you need buy only once. Anything Randall makes is a better tool, better weapon, and more beautiful objet d’art than those POS flea market zombie knives. dayum - I don’t know if I love you or hate you right now… ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/64 "2018-06-20T01:06:08Z")
> [@simster](#): > > dayum - I don’t know if I love you or hate you right now… I bought a #14 with carbon steel blade back in 1992. A #1 will be arriving in November after several years of patient waiting. Go ahead and hate me. Randalls aren’t cheap and now you want one.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/65 "2018-06-20T01:13:32Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > It is reasonable to suppose that if knifes were removed, people would resort to clubs or fists. Right. But they aren’t removing knives; they’re just removing knives with certain words printed on them. The alternative to that, presumably, is another knife; say a chef’s knife from the kitchen. Did the rounded end effort make a noticeable dent in knife violence? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/66 "2018-06-20T05:58:56Z")
Just found out what a “[push dagger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_dagger)” is and that they are illegal in GB. I found that because I just found out an [ulu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulu) is illegal in GB. Which means it sucks to cook like an Eskimo. I found that out because Fante’s Food Equipment Supply sells mezzalunas, which I was originally looking for and which by the same reasoning (hand held blade where handle is perpendicular) should also be illegal, but aren’t, as far as I know, in GB. Fante’s says it stocks ulus. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/67 "2018-06-20T08:44:16Z")
> [@XT](#): > > I’d be really interested in seeing the stats on how many knife crimes are committed in the UK using ‘zombie’ knives. I’d guess it’s a pretty low percentage. Hell, I doubt that even knife violence is a serious issue, though I haven’t looked into it. I’d be surprised if we are talking more than a few hundred people killed a year, if that, in the UK. The total homicide rate is of that order. But I’m surprised at the notion that “a few hundred” a year seems to be considered something to shrug at. There is a problem of an upsurge of gang-related violence between young men using knives, mostly concentrated in a relatively few areas, but occasionally springing up in unexpected places. Whether this type of knife is a specific problem or not, it doesn’t have to be actually capable of some specific level of lethality to be effective as a threat of violence, or a provocation to retaliation. Maybe there is an element of “legislate in haste” about it, given the public concern about knife crime in general; but if it closes a loophole that allowed someone to throw their weight about with a knife in their hand, why not? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/68 "2018-06-20T09:45:06Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Apparently the idea is that if you ban everything even the least reminiscent of violence, you will create a society of pacifists, like something from the SF movie “Demolition Man”. :rolleyes: > > Hasn’t this been discredited yet, by sociological studies if not by observation and common sense? I don’t think that is really the driving force behind this sort of ban - this seems to be more about trying to impact a segment of youth culture where it is considered cool to carry a badass knife. We’re a very urbanised country - and the idea seems to be to try to get people to behave in a civilised-urbanised way - carrying a big scary knife isn’t really part of that. It’s not really all that different to banning, say, public urination in that respect. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/69 "2018-06-20T10:36:44Z")
It would probably be a better idea just to get them jobs. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/70 "2018-06-20T10:47:49Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > It would probably be a better idea just to get them jobs. Often they are still (nominally) at school. It’s doubly distressing to read the details of the cases that come to court - all so young and the spark of the quarrel so petty in many cases. Some may well be in work; but the jobs on offer don’t have the status and glamour they crave, or the only work they can get is quick cash peddling drugs, which does give some sort of status, but that tends to need reinforcement by violence. In general it’s a truism that young offenders do mostly grow out of it, settle down into a more regular way of life, job, family and all the rest of it - but the trick is at least to keep them alive until then. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/71 "2018-06-20T13:19:37Z")
OK, banning ulus is definitely an overreaction. They’re a very practical kitchen knife, and if anything, it seems like an ulu would be less effective as a weapon than a knife with an inline handle. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/72 "2018-06-20T16:01:01Z")
Yes, and it discriminates against flensers. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/73 "2018-06-20T16:03:53Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > The total homicide rate is of that order. But I’m surprised at the notion that “a few hundred” a year seems to be considered something to shrug at. > > There is a problem of an upsurge of gang-related violence between young men using knives, mostly concentrated in a relatively few areas, but occasionally springing up in unexpected places. Whether this type of knife is a specific problem or not, it doesn’t have to be actually capable of some specific level of lethality to be effective as a threat of violence, or a provocation to retaliation. Maybe there is an element of “legislate in haste” about it, given the public concern about knife crime in general; but if it closes a loophole that allowed someone to throw their weight about with a knife in their hand, why not? I would guess that in a country of over 50 million people you have a couple hundred dying each year from just falling off ladders or choking on toothpicks. That’s a very small number of people, especially compared to the 10’s of thousands who die each year in the UK from alcohol or even coal fired power plants or other air borne smog issues. How many people die in the UK every year from lung cancer? It seems like a vast overreaction to me, but then I live in a country that allows it’s citizens to own guns, so obviously my risk yard stick is calibrated differently than yours. If the citizens of the UK are good with banning ‘zombie’ knives, well, more power to them. Crack on. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/74 "2018-06-20T16:36:32Z")
> [@XT](#): > > I would guess that in a country of over 50 million people you have a couple hundred dying each year from just falling off ladders or choking on toothpicks. That’s a very small number of people, especially compared to the 10’s of thousands who die each year in the UK from alcohol or even coal fired power plants or other air borne smog issues.) It so happens they’re [working on that too](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/24/uk-power-generation-coal-free-gas-renewables-nuclear). ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/75 "2018-06-20T19:13:39Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > It so happens they’re [working on that too](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/24/uk-power-generation-coal-free-gas-renewables-nuclear). That’s pretty cool. I had heard something about the records but thanks for the article! I hope they can go coal free permanently…it’s a great goal to shoot for! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/76 "2018-06-20T21:04:29Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I don’t think that is really the driving force behind this sort of ban - this seems to be more about trying to impact a segment of youth culture where it is considered cool to carry a badass knife. We’re a very urbanised country - and the idea seems to be to try to get people to behave in a civilised-urbanised way - carrying a big scary knife isn’t really part of that. It’s not really all that different to banning, say, public urination in that respect. AFAIK it’s already illegal to carry around a knife as a weapon or without good reason (you’re a chef/SCUBA diver—OK with the chef’s knife or diver’s knife. Taking the same knife down the boozer? Not so much, unless you were planning to do some cooking or diving there.) How much more illegal does banning particular types or brands of knives make it? Extra-tough ASBOs? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/77 "2018-06-20T21:43:34Z")
😕 “ASBO”? ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/78 "2018-06-20T21:52:27Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > 😕 “ASBO”? Anti social behavior order ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2018, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/79 "2018-06-20T22:14:30Z")
Which is? Besides an Orwell reference? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2018, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315/80 "2018-06-21T11:40:30Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > AFAIK it’s already illegal to carry around a knife as a weapon or without good reason (you’re a chef/SCUBA diver—OK with the chef’s knife or diver’s knife. Taking the same knife down the boozer? Not so much, unless you were planning to do some cooking or diving there.) I’m in the US and carry a knife for assorted and varied tasks; opening boxes, cutting rope, opening letters, etc. Thus the abbreviation EDC (every day carry). Is that considered a “good reason” in the UK? And boozer? I thought y’all called them pubs.😕 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-whats-a-zombie-knife/816315.md?page=5)