Some machetes and other knives can have 'legitimate uses', such as those used for gardening, agriculture or culinary purposes.
This complicates legislation around knives, as it means certain blades can be kept at home and remain unseized by the police.
Currently, this means that even if police find a machete or other legal blade inside someone's residence and they believe the items could be used for violent or criminal activity, they have no lawful right to seize a blade.
Why, exactly, should we be tightening legislation because the police have trouble understanding it? We did that with the Dangerous Dogs Act, and yet the lazy bastards still refuse to act if they think they can get away with it.
And since when did police 'suspicion' that you might do something illegal with a legal possession count for anything?
Zombie knives are already included in the list of banned knives, meaning it is illegal to possess them, bring them into the UK, sell or hire them out or lend them to someone. But this only applies to the weapons which meet the three criteria: cutting edge, serrated edge and words or images that imply they are to be used for violence.
You have to have some criteria. What's wrong with these? It's not like my kitchen doesn't contain several knives just as capable of killing someone even without the words 'zombie annihilator' written on the hilt...
Current Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: 'The thugs wielding these deadly knives aim to terrorise their victims and the public, and too often even carry out horrific or fatal attacks.
'They are emboldened by the cowardly idea that carrying these blades inflates their own status and respect.'
And Home Secretaries seem to be emboldened by pressure groups and newspaper headlines into knee jerk reactions that do little to resolve the real problem, Suella.
