Within the UK, which has strict gun-control legal guidelines, about 4 in 10 homicides contain a knife or sharp instrument. There may be specific concern about knife crime involving younger individuals in Britain’s cities. In London, 21 youngsters had been killed in 2023, 18 of whom had been stabbed to dying.
“I can’t keep silent as extra younger lives are misplaced to those brutal and heartless crimes,” Elba mentioned. “As faculty returns, too many younger individuals is not going to be becoming a member of their classmates and too many grieving households have misplaced a youngster they love lately.”
The federal government introduced a ban on machetes and knives which might be designed to look threatening in August 2023, however the regulation has but to be authorized by Parliament.
Elba additionally mentioned expertise firms ought to be held accountable for knife imagery on cellphones.
“I can decide up a telephone proper now, kind in knives and I’ll get inundated with adverts for them,” he mentioned. “We must always discover a method to deter tech firms, promoting, to place that away.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman, Max Blain, mentioned knife crime and hospital admissions for stabbings had each fallen in comparison with the pre-pandemic 12 months of 2019-2020.
“However, nonetheless, we all know knife crime devastates lives,” he mentioned. “We do need to do extra. It’s welcome that Idris Elba and others proceed to shine a light-weight on this vital challenge.”
