Across the U.S., criminal knife attacks are on the rise, or at least they are getting more media attention, which should hardly be surprising since in any given year, according to FBI crime data, knives and other cutting instruments have long been used in more homicides than rifles or shotguns of any kind.
Fatal stabbings usually out-pace rifle or shotgun slayings on a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio.
Yet, congressional anti-gunners have been trying to ban so-called “assault rifles” for decades. Modern semiautomatic rifles have actually been banned in a handful of states, and in other states their possession is heavily regulated.
Ironically, anybody can purchase a knife anywhere in the country with no background check. There is no waiting period. Regardless whether it’s a pocketknife, hunting knife, butcher’s knife or one of many different “survival” or “tactical” knives, the story is the same. Walk in, pick out a knife, pay the cashier and walk out, which many in the Second Amendment community believe is the way it should work.
There is even an organization devoted to protecting the right to own and carry knives. The group has had some successes. It is called Knife Rights, Inc.
Over the past several weeks, news reports have highlighted knife attacks.
The Palm Beach Post recently covered the fatal stabbing of a man in West Palm Beach which was the result of a fight between the two men outside of grocery store. The newspaper account said the men had been “hanging out and drinking beer” at the store.
In Palo Alto, Calif., a man was stabbed in late February and died several days later in early March, according to Palo Alto Online.
Seattle police are investigating the brutal weekend stabbing of a man in the Capitol Hill neighborhood over the weekend. According to the Capitol Hill blog, the victim was transported to the hospital with multiple wounds.
The Tacoma, Washington News Tribune is reporting that a man wanted in connection with a violent daylight stabbing at Point Defiance Park back in February was arrested at the San Francisco airport as he was waiting to board a plane in an attempt to flee the country.
WLS News in Chicago recently interviewed a good Samaritan who helped a woman who was stabbed, and was then attacked by the suspect. The man, identified as Keith Fahrney, told the station he pulled the suspect from his Jeep, which the knife-wielding suspect was trying to steal. He threw the suspect to the ground.
WTOP News is reporting on fatal stabbing in Beltsville, Maryland. The victim, an unidentified man, was stabbed several times.
And in Portland, Oregon, according to KPTV News, police are investigating a fatal stabbing at the Steel Bridge. The victim was rushed to a hospital, but he could not be saved.
Doug Ritter is the founder of Knife Rights, the Arizona-based group which has been lobbying for years against onerous knife laws around the country, with a fair amount of success.
“I don’t know if there have been more stabbings,” he said, “+but they are getting more attention.”
Ritter, in a telephone interview with TGM, said it is “amazing” that nobody seems to keep statistics, which may not be entirely accurate. The FBI, for its annual crime report, does take note of fatal stabbings, but with the agency adopted the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), a confusing, user-unfriendly platform which replaced the Uniform Crime Report platform in 2020. Crime data is now provided via the “Crime Data Explorer.”
In 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, the FBI said 1,216 people were murdered with knives or “cutting instruments.”
But the same platform lists these categories about firearms slayings:
Handgun: 5,803
Firearm: 4,584
Rifle: 489
Other firearm: 385
Shotgun: 161
Handgun (automatic): 211
Firearm (automatic): 191
Shotgun (automatic): 4
Other firearm (automatic): 10
When TGM attempted to contact the FBI in 2021 about these confusing numbers, the agency did not return calls or email inquiries.
In the beginning of the Knife Rights effort, a lot of emphasis was placed on repealing “switchblade” laws, and Ritter acknowledged a lot of people confuse genuine switchblade knives with other models including “assisted opening” knives, butterfly knives, and those which may be opened with a wrist motion. IN all the years his group has been active, Ritter said he was only sure about three specific crimes involving a true switchblade knife.
He related a conversation he had with a pathologist at a trade show some months ago. This man had not seen any victims who had been killed with switchblades or tactical knives.
“The majority of stabbings are (with) kitchen knives,” Ritter noted.
After all, they are in every kitchen in America, they are used in restaurants (even establishments located within zones where knives are somehow regulated) and many fatal domestic arguments start in the kitchen, he suggested.
“Ask anybody in law enforcement about what kind of knife is used,” he observed. “It’s a kitchen knife.”
Despite the increased attention to fatal stabbings, Ritter told TGM, “We have not seen any pushback.”
Where the media, gun prohibition lobbying groups and anti-gun politicians are quick to use the term “gun violence,” no such label has emerged for stabbings, either fatal or non-fatal. One never reads about “knife violence,” yet fatal stabbings/slashings are no less violent than gun-related homicides or assaults.
Lurking in the shadows of this discussion are two high-profile cases, one in New Jersey and the other in California.
In Berlin Township, New Jersey, Carol Bowne, a 39-year-old hairdresser, had a restraining order against an ex-boyfriend, Michael Eitel. She had applied to the police for a permit to buy a gun, a process that was to take a maximum of 30 days. On the day in 2015 she was fatally stabbed in her driveway, 42 days had passed since her gun application had been filed.
In 2014, in Isla Vista, California, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people in a rampage which ended when he took his own life. Rodger stabbed three of his victims and shot the other three, but in the years hence, he has always been known as the “Isla Vista gunman.” Of special note about this case, Rodger had purchased three different handguns over the course of many months. He cleared three separate California background checks and went through the state-mandated waiting period three different times. He used only California-compliant 10-round magazines in the shooting spree.
