At the recent NRA conference in Dallas, Texas, President Donald Trump took to the podium mic and said, “I recently read a story that in London, which has unbelievably tough gun laws, a once very prestigious hospital–right in the middle–is like a war zone for horrible stabbing wounds.
“Yes, that’s right,” he continued. “They don’t have guns. They have knives. And it’s said they have blood all over the floors of this hospital. They say it’s as bad as a military war zone hospital.” President Trump went on to say “Knives, knives, knives” while mimicking plunging a knife at something. It’s odd to witness someone enthusiastically playing air-guitar, and it is even more awkward to watch the US commander-in-chief lacerating thin air in front of him. In his typical style, President Trump got his point across, albeit in melodramatic fashion.
But is his statement accurate? OpsLens Contributors Steve Pomper and Morgan Deane both delved into the reported knife epidemic in London. As President Trump reminded, the United Kingdom is largely without guns stemming from stringent laws prohibiting use of firearms.
British Bobbies (cops) still do not ordinarily arm themselves with firearms, but other less-lethal weapons such as clubs and Tasers are among duty belt accoutrements. Access to firepower for Britain’s Bobbies is available at secured locations, just not readily carried on duty like American police personnel.
The proliferation of knives used to assail and murder people in London, a city whose approximately 8,788,000 people are policed by roughly 700 Bobbies, has seen some widespread publicity. Thus it is not far-fetched for President Trump to balloon the point during his NRA address.
However, a BBC report published today furnished a Royal London Hospital surgeon who claims President Trump’s remarks are all bunk, saying “There is more we can all do to combat this violence, but to suggest guns are part of the solution is ridiculous. Gunshot wounds are at least twice as lethal as knife injuries and more difficult to repair.”
A BBC radio podcast recorded last month entailed the following statement from Dr. Martin P. Griffiths: “Some of my military colleagues have described their practice here as being similar to being at [Helmand province’s former Camp] Bastion.” Is this where President trump adopted the notion and expressed words at the NRA venue? Maybe.
During a BBC Radio 4 Today, Marian Fitzgerald, a criminologist at the University of Kent, said, “It’s just politically convenient, in a speech to the gun rights lobby, to try and make those comparisons and they are totally spurious.”
So, if the Bobbies in London are unarmed and the knife-wielding non-chefs are rampant throughout the land of royalty, what is the London government to do? Drop-boxes!
In response to a purported epidemic involving stabbings, London’s answer to knife-wielding individuals is these drop-box kiosks emplaced throughout the city. (Credit: Facebook/Tony Mangia)
Yep, London Mayor Sadiq Khan cut right to the chase, some believe, when he opted to emplace these deposit-knives-here kiosks throughout London. Clearly neither a chef nor a Ginsu salesman, Mayor Khan also publicized his philosophy regarding sharp-edged objects. Khan’s full tweet read: “No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife. Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law.”
I admire a government leader who makes broad statements with such vigor, verve, and confidence. If only each and every word he uttered were true and plausible. Hypothetically, if one were to believe his words had merit and were applied realistically, wouldn’t that mean London would not have a knife problem? Wouldn’t it also mean the mayor would have no need for such words on a political platform? For the record, that is not a knock on the British Bobbies, either; cops can never be everywhere. And that is more a dose of reality than Mr. Khan’s blanket broadcast for utopian-minded folks.
I wonder how the Bobbies feel about his unequivocal resolve. I’d imagine some may have some things up in a bunch, and rightly so. For any politician to make public an unrealistic promise while having zero idea what they are saying and how they are to bring their message to fruition is, to this former cop, laughable, deceptive, and delusional.
Indeed, it is sad that Londoners are being confronted with sharp weapons’ use as alternates for thugs to overcome their gun prohibition. In essence, the UK sample serves as a Petrie dish study of what would transpire in America if we were to have our Second Amendment rights overruled.
As Fox News reported, “Most of [London’s] murder victims [in 2018] have been stabbed to death, as guns are tightly restricted in Britain and shootings are relatively rare.”
On May 4, 2018 Bradlee Dean published the following excerpt in Freedom Outpost: “I then asked [the English woman] how disarmament was working out for the people [in Great Britain]. She told me that she has now lived here in America for 40 years and that her mother still lives there. She went on to say that her mother was so brainwashed that she has a wad of money rolled up in a secret compartment so when, not if but when, an intruder breaks in, she can tell them where the money is in hopes of them not bringing harm to her.” I can not conceive of living abroad knowing my mother (Mum) was elsewhere and living under such a predicament. I can only imagine the weight.
Taking another glimpse at the severity of London’s specter of knife attacks, Dr. Griffiths admitted in the BBC broadcast on April 5, 2018 that children in school uniforms are being admitted into their care “with knife and gun wounds.”
"We're treating children in school uniforms for knife and gun injuries". One London trauma surgeon – Martin Griffiths @NHSBartsHealth, says his practice is like a war zone #r4today pic.twitter.com/rvL1PEF5ZM
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) April 5, 2018
After listening to that BBC broadcast, can you hear the ambivalence from the Royal London Hospital surgeon talking about the knifings in London?
Dean encapsulated more of her conversation with the British woman now in America: “The woman I was speaking with also told me that now with all of the Muslims coming into their country, knives have now been outlawed due to all of the stabbings and the police were disarmed in England, as well. I could not believe that a people could be so dumbed down to accept this in any country.”
Interesting revelations. Senior citizens readied to hand over their life-savings loot when (“not if”) the assailant crashes through the flat’s door. A Muslim mayor presiding over a British city where guns are prohibited and anyone with a knife is deemed completely out of bounds is subjected to disarmed police and “the full force of the law.” Sounds like a war zone in more ways than the one. Seems President Trump had something to be animated about.
Thomas Jefferson iterated, “No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” God Bless America, indeed.
