Whats the reasoning behind making curved bladed swords illegal in the UK, whilst straight blades stay legal?
The principle reason for doing it isn’t to do with the effectiveness of curved blades as a weapon. It’s to do with the press and politics: The press love reporting criminal attacks with “samurai swords”. Much more than they do attacks with broken bottles, half bottles and other more mundane items. Although “samuari swords” are statistically insignificant in the commission of crimes, the home secretary decided to play for good press by banning them. The definition is arbitrary (why 29″? and just what is “curved”), there are a number of exceptions, and the Statutory Instrument that was used to do it has already been amended at least twice. The minister thought that she could ban the cheap, mass produced wall hangers that tend to be used (and are not particularly effective weapons anyway, generally sold blunt and poorly constructed).
