UK To Mull High Video Game Taxes — To Fight Knife Crime

chareverie writes "The Prime Minister of the UK is being urged to impose high taxes on violent video games in an effort to reduce the number of knife-related crime. The request comes from Richard Taylor, who argues that young people 'feel that the law has no control over them. They just feel that they can go on the streets and do whatever they like.' He doesn't have a definitive number on how much to tax on the offensive video games, but says that they should be 'very high.' Rap music is also voiced to be a concern due to the alleged negativity and language. Taylor's son, Damilola Taylor, was killed in November 2000 at the age of 10 by knife stabbing."

Comments

Separation of problem and solution

[SuperKendall]

The youth of Britain apparently feel that the law has no control over them (something I agree is probably the case).

So you solve that by... raising taxes? It doesn't even matter on what, it might as well be rutabagas for the good it does you in terms of solving the problem. How is making video games that thugs want more expensive so they have to knife four more people to get the funds really going to help?

Instead, how about imposing some more forceful law over those that feel the law is irrelevant to their actions? When actions start having real consequences, people can and will change.

Some also want knives banned

[Jason Levine]

Some people in the UK are also calling for the ban of any pointed chef's knives. These people claim that there's no possible reason for a knife to have a point to it except to stab people. Now, I'm not a chef, but I've done my share of cooking. I will often use the pointed tip of my knife to "stab" a food item if the food (like, say tomatoes) resists my initial slice attempts (e.g. looks like it's going to squish instead of slice cleanly). What's next? Ban scissors? Box cutters (not just from planes but any possession of)? Swiss Army Knives?

Re:Some also want knives banned

[drinkypoo]

Correct - a law against pointed knives would outlaw, for example, paring knives; making it difficult to peel certain fruits.

As per the linked article explicitly says "The researchers say legislation to ban the sale of long pointed knives would be a key step in the fight against violent crime." So the proposed legislation would not outlaw paring knives.

Besides, many knives are equally effective at causing harm using just the bladed edge (think butcher knives.)

No, they are not equally effective - the most effective type of knife to fight with is one which permits both slashing and piercing attacks. Weapons which only allow one or the other are obviously, provably less versatile.

The best argument against any litigation like this is always the same. At some point you have to accept that since any able human can kill any other able human with nothing more than a broken chopstick (you have to sleep sometime) banning things is never going to prevent murder. If you want to prevent murder, you have to change people.

The second best argument is always equally predictable: The utility of the item in question. Claims from "top chefs" to the contrary, there is no knife as useful as the Chef's Knife (I have always called it a French knife, and since I don't eat "Freedom Fries" I probably will continue to do so.) The really relevant part of the above article is as follows:

A modern chef's knife is a utility knife designed to perform well at many differing kitchen tasks, rather than excelling at any one in particular. It can be used for mincing, slicing, chopping vegetables, slicing meat, or even disjointing large cuts of beef or ham. In order to improve the chef's knife's multi-purpose abilities, some owners employ differential sharpening along the length of the blade. The fine tip, used for precision work such as mincing, might be ground with a very sharp, acute cutting bevel; the mid-section or belly of the blade receives a moderately sharp edge for general cutting, chopping and slicing, while the heavy heel or back of the cutting edge is given a strong, thick edge for such heavy-duty tasks as disjointing beef.

Good kitchen knives are expensive and a single high-quality knife can easily run into the multiple hundreds of dollars. This one (large, pointed) knife does the job of many knives and furthermore, it makes many tasks easier than trying to perform them with almost any other tool. My lady is a professional chef who has worked in a broad variety of restaurants including a four star on Orcas island. We have a food processor and a blender with a mini food processor attachment in our kitchen and both of us regularly use a French knife. For example, if I want to dice a small quantity of fresh garlic, the food processor is essentially useless as it will only distribute partially-chopped garlic around the bowl of the processor. The most popular current alternative to this knife, the Santoku does not have enough curve to dice easily, a task at which the French knife excels. A garlic press crushes the garlic, even if it has a chopper on it. If you do not believe that this makes a difference, your taste buds are fired. Hire new ones.

In summary: A single large, pointed knife can perform almost every knife-related task in the kitchen - if you prefer high quality goods this can save you hundreds of dollars. Hand-picked top chefs who say that they don't need a large pointed knife clearly don't make sushi, cut up chickens, or dice their own garlic, let alone have the same economic concerns as the average "man in the street" - it's hard to see what it looks like in a normal kitchen from the top of an ivory tower.

Bullying was the cause of Damilola's death

[bendytendril]

He was stabbed by a gang of 11 to 14-year-olds. The boy's mother had complained repeatedly to the principal about bullies, yet he did nothing.

Bullying is the real problem here which should be addressed.

Re:HUH?

[Khashishi]

As a cook, I'd have to say that's a bad idea.

Revenue Streams?

[tripdizzle]

Sooo, they put a tax on video games and how does that cut down (no pun intended) on knife crime?? Do they use that money to hire more cops to patrol, or do studies on the relationship between gaming and knife crime?? Seems to me like they are just looking for another revenue stream, and vilifying video games usually seems to be an easy target, especially when its being done for the greatest of all causes, for the children.
My head just exploded.

Re:HUH?

[Brandybuck]

Just like with guns, the law-abiders need to bear the full brunt of the legislation. Register all knives! If you're an honest cook, you have nothing to hide. So register knives today! And wait ten days for the appoveal. For the Children!

Remember, you're not a politician, and don't know how to run your own life.