THE government's plan to increase the minimum age limit on the purchase of hunting or fighting knives is not before time, but does not go nearly far enough in helping eliminate a very serious, growing phenomenon. Having said that, for the plans to be attacked by "anti-knife" campaigners as being "too little, too late" is grudging to a degree.. They may indeed be too little, but since they cannot come soon enough, anything is better than nothing. We must hope, however, that in welcoming the move and the fact that the danger has now finally been partially acknowledged, the home secretary can be persuaded to extend the powers of exclusion. We in North Wales have witnessed on several occasions, this year alone, the appalling and tragic consequences of knife attacks, and learned about them elsewhere in Britain on an almost daily basis. Ferocious blades - for ownership if which there can be no justification except survival in the wild - can currently be bought across the counter (or under the table) by 16-year-olds. They have been used, increasingly, by children of that age or younger, to kill or wound, in schools, and as a means to robbery, on the street or in break-ins. In many respects they are not only as dangerous as guns, but more so, because they are silent and easily concealed; potentially just as lethal but not recognised as such. Raising the purchasing age to 18 is, therefore, addressing only a small part of the problem. There is nothing to stop them being bought, legally, and then sold or handed on - or stolen.. Besides which, their criminal use is by no means restricted to the under-16s. Knife killings now outnumber gun murders by some three-to-one, and knives are increasingly being carried by criminals in preference to guns simply because they can be. What is clearly needed therefore is for possession to be subject to licence and otherwise made illegal. Anyone found carrying a knife unless authorised to do so should be treated in exactly the same way as they would be in possession of a firearm. Types of knives also need to be more strictly classified, though a razor blade or a dinner knife in the wrong hands can be just as deadly as a machete. There may be, however, legitimate reasons for carrying razor blades or craft knives. As with so much of this government's legislative action, this is well-intentioned but ill thought-through - a knee jerk reaction instead of the sober analysis of a problem. Think again, minister. | 
