As the Daily Record continues to milk the blood of dead teenagers to keep from running out of morbid front page headlines, their latest, today, is as ill-informed as ever.

Here’s what you and your family need to know but the Daily Record feels no obligation to tell you of.

In Scotland in 2006/2007, there were just over 4 000 recorded crimes of ‘having in a public place and article with a blade or point.’ By 2016/2017, the figure had fallen by half to just over 2 000.¹

By 2019/2020, the figure had climbed to 2 666 before falling again to 2 582 last year.²

In England & Wales, in the same year, there were 50 500 cases, nearly 20 times as many and nearly twice as many per head of population.³

With particular regard to the extremely dangerous ‘Rambo’ or ‘Zombie’ knives, there were 15 cases recorded in 2023/2024 in Scotland.⁴ In England & Wales, ‘in 2023, ‘zombie’ knives, ‘rambo’ knives, swords and machetes were mentioned in more than 14,000 crimes, recorded.’⁵

This 900 to 1 ratio, 90 to 1 per head of population, is shocking and were it reversed, Scotland’s media would be feeding on it daily.

Sources:

1. https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-handling-offensive-weapons/pages/3/
2. https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2023-24/pages/1/
3. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn04304/
4. https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2023-24/
5. https://geppsolicitors.co.uk/site/blog/criminal-law-news/knife-crime-in-the-uk-can-banning-zombie-knives-curb-the-violence/#:~:text=In%202023%2C%20%E2%80%98zombie%E2%80%99%20knives%2C%20swords%20and%20machetes%20were,of%20these%20involved%20machetes%2C%20swords%20and%20%E2%80%98zombie%E2%80%99%20knives.

---