Knives Kill Five Brits Each Week

(England) Preliminary date obtained through the Freedom of Information Act indicate that there are at least five fatal stabbings each week in England.

Additionally, year-to-year numbers indicate that knife deaths are increasing.

Shadow home affairs minister James Brokenshire, said: "Knife crime is a scourge which claims too many lives and ruins countless others. Yet under Labour it has soared.

"The government's only response is short term, ad-hoc police operations, the results of which they spin and manipulate anyway to try and get a good story. 2009 must herald a new approach.

"Combating knife crime requires concerted action in the long and short term, not just spin. As well as deploying our police on to the streets as the norm, we would introduce an automatic presumption of jail for knife possession - this may be harsh but it is absolutely necessary.

The debate regarding knife crime and control will likely endure until Britain finally decides to license and/or ban all knives. Trial proposals have been discussed but, so far, nothing definitive has been agreed upon.

However, one thing does seem definite. Government and community leaders relentlessly focus on the knives more than the violent perpetrators of the killings. Knives don't kill people. People kill people.