Gun-rights advocates used to joke that if gun control were implemented, paternalists would go after knives next.

It doesn’t sound so funny anymore.

A rash of knifings in London has led to a crackdown:

Knife crime among young people has sparked a widespread debate in recent weeks in Britain, where police say they have seen “a worrying trend” toward more severe knife attacks involving younger attackers and victims.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday announced a crackdown on teenagers carrying knives, saying that those as young as 16 will be prosecuted for knife possession on the first offense. Previously, anyone younger than 18 generally received only a warning.

“Young people need to understand that carrying knives doesn’t protect you, it does the opposite—it increases the danger for all of us, destroys young lives and ruins families,“ Brown said after meeting with top police and government officials at his 10 Downing Street office. “Recent tragic events have reminded us of that.“ . . .

While overall knife crime has decreased 16 percent from last year, police say, the average age of attackers and victims has shifted from the late teens or early 20s to the early to mid-teens.

Of the 16 teenage homicide victims in London so far this year, police said, two were shot, three were beaten and 11 were stabbed. Of the 26 teenagers slain in London last year, 16 cases involved knives.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, the government official in charge of public security, said the government has also doubled the maximum sentence for knife possession to four years. And she said the government plans to spend about $6 million on an advertising campaign to steer young people away from knives.

Hang on just a second. According to the news story, nearly all gun ownership is illegal in Britain. But if guns cause crime, then what is causing the rash of knifings in Britain? Do all weapons cause crime? Or is there—and I realize this is just an absolutely crazy thing to say—maybe just a smidgen of truth to the theory that it’s the other way around: that weapons cause crime the way flies cause garbage?

I know. It’s nuts. Forget I said anything.

I would rather be confronted by a knife than a gun—which is why I feel safer in Britain than in America.  Actually, I have been confronted by both.  Amazingly, the gunman didn’t pull the trigger—I am still here.  The knife was too far away to reach me, and I could run.  If only our VCU art student in Byrd Park had been able to outrun a knife instead of getting shot in the back by a gun.  Flies and garbage aside, gun control does mean knives as an alternative.  That’s one step better than the bullet-giddy society we live in now.

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