Rise in UK knife attacks leads to a crackdown and stokes public anxiety
A familiar horror reached Pooja Kanda first on social media: There had been a sword attack in London. And then Kanda, who was home alone at the time, saw a detail she dreaded and knew all too well.
A man with a sword had killed a 14-year-old boy who was walking to school. Two years ago, her 16-year-old son, Ronan, was killed by two sword-wielding schoolmates while walking to a neighbor’s to borrow a PlayStation controller.
“It took me back,” Kanda, who lives near Birmingham, said about Daniel Anjorin’s April 30 killing in an attack in London’s Hainault district that also wounded four people. “It’s painful to see that this has happened all over again.”
In parts of the world that ban or strictly regulate gun ownership, including Britain and much of the rest of Europe, knives and other types of blades are often the weapons of choice used in crimes. Many end up in the hands of children, as they can be cheap and easy to get.
If you don't know the difference between a pocket knife and a sword, you're probably not in any position to call anyone a laughing stock.
But it doesn't matter anyway, because the only way anyone is going to believe the UK is the "laughing stock of the world" is if they've never spoken to any of the people who make up that world.
It's the USA and has been for decades, peaking with Republicans like George Bush and Donald Trump. It's not even a close contest.