Looking for some stuff on Screwfix's website today I noticed that you have to be 18+ to buy wallpaper stripping knives ..FFS
- posted
14 years ago
Looking for some stuff on Screwfix's website today I noticed that you have to be 18+ to buy wallpaper stripping knives ..FFS
"Usenet Nutter" wrote
Yes, you are likely to be asked your age in the sheds now too, if you try to buy something like a pallet knife! I was, a year or two back, and I'm the wrong side of 40.
I heard a report recently of a woman who was shopping with a young child. Her child had some "cutting-out" to do, so the woman looks for some scissors. Good news, there are some scissors specifically for children (obviously well-blunt plastic variety). So she sends the child to the shop counter to gain confidence in the purchasing process. Not only will the vendor not sell them to the child "for safety reasons", he won't sell them to the woman either, as they were first presented to him by the child!
What a world we live in.
Phil
It's not because of the world we live in, it's because minimum wage staff who are not willing to make decisions about should a sensible law be applied to everyone to the effect that it is no longer sensible or should they use a bit of judgement.
A bit of research for the relevant legislation, seems to point at Section 6 of the Offensive Weapons Act 1996 (see:
So it's *sixteen* years, not *eighteen*.
And:
"this section applies to=97
(a) any knife, knife blade or razor blade,
(b) any axe, and
(c) any other article which has a blade or which is sharply pointed and which is made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person."
So it's not screwdrivers, wallpaper strippers etc.
Perhaps "knife" could do with a better description - lots of things having "knife" in the name are not knives as they are commonly understood.
(IANAL etc.)
There have been a number of cases where adults have been refused alcohol sales because they have a child with them and "might" give it to them - depite there being no evidence of any intention to do so and despite it being perfectly legal for a parent to serve their children alcohol at home if they are over 5.
SteveW
But the above could be 'adapted for use'?
AIUI an innocent object can be considered an offensive weapon depending on use & intent.
I carry a 2' crowbar in a tool box in the back of the van. If I were stopped it wouldn't be an offensive weapon, but if I threatened someone with it, then it would become one.
If you had the same crowbar under the drivers seat of your car, it would automatically become an offensive weapon.
"...*is* made or adapted..."
That's the wording of the Act.
If the wording was "could be" it would cover spoons, or tins of beans, or coins in your pocket or any other metal object where the metal could be worked (or even recast) to make a knife.
You need tweezers
Quite a few things in my vans drivers door pocket could be offensive weapons. I call them tools of the trade.
Adam
Why bother when you can just kick someone to death in the high street as they did round our way on Halloween night. Made the local paper, but that's about all. Huge police station 100 yards away, no doubt fully occupied with politics and form filling. From now until late January we will be in the grip of the Britain Behaving Badly season. Beam me up Scotty
Its not just over here.
I was flying out of Seattle a couple of months ago and was refused a lager in the departures food court until I could produce my passport with proof of age. No child with me: the granddaughter was at home in the UK...
On 6 Nov, 23:39, "The Medway Handyman"
No it wouldn't. There are no "offensive weapons", as an inherent legal definition, as there are for firearms. Well-known precedents exist for high-heeled shoes and hairspray being counted as offensive weapons in a particular case, and of course bottles and glasses are regularly offensive weapons, but only when used as such.
If anyone can show good purpose for having the crowbar (pretty easy for yourself, but not impossible for others) that's a defence. Equally a prosecution would have to show some intent to use the crowbar as an offensive weapon. Even for a knife (according to the legal definition re length etc.) there is still scope for a defence by showing reasonable purpose, even though in this case there would be no need to show intent to use it as an offensive weapon, as there's a specific charge of possession that could be applied.
It's quite amazing what plastic surgery can do these days. :)
Maybe he'd had a window seat and the window was open ?
:)
A woman told me I looked 28 last week :-)
Owain
They must have thought you were Benjamin Button.
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