Fighting knife crime - Leave them at home

LUCKILY we seem to have escaped the worst excesses of soaring knife crime seen in other European countries but there have been more than enough fatal attacks here to cause concern.

There has been a six-fold increase in the number of murders involving knives in the last five years and tough new sentencing policies and new regulations empowering gardaí to search people are part of the response to these unwelcome developments.

There is no reason for anyone to carry a knife in a public place in this country and it should be discouraged in the strongest way possible.

Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy made the strongest argument when he pointed out that young people carrying knives often have the weapons used against them.