BBC UK today have a surge in ‘Zombie‘ knife possession as their headline story, with the following evidence of a doubling in the last five years:

BBC Scotland have found no such equivalent story.

They could have mentioned this as new laws on the prohibition of such knives came into force in Scotland only last year:

In 2023-24, there were 15 crimes of Possession of certain dangerous knives in a private place (6 of which were used in other criminal activity and 9 which were not). In the same period there were 230 crimes of Possession of prohibited offensive weapons in a private place, 79 of these were used in other criminal activity and 151 were not.

^{https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2023-24/}

So, the usual arithmetic for a comparison. With 11 times the population, all things being equal, England and Wales might be expected to have had around 2 500 mentions of such knives in crime logs but, even in the previous year, had more than 14 000, more than 5* (50 times in circulation altogether) times as many!

Should we worry in Scotland?

A typical County Lines gang weapons hoard seized by police.

Police Scotland estimate more than 50 such gangs, all based in English cities, operating from more than 300 homes of the vulnerable, from Annan to Wick.