RUTHFULLY YOURS

A man and a woman were killed and a third injured in a knife attack at an IKEA store in the Swedish city of Vasteras on Monday and two suspects were arrested, police said.

While Sweden has strict gun control laws, it has no knife control legislation.  Anyone can go into a home goods store and buy a knife.  A knife buyer doesn’t have to undergo a background check.  There is no waiting period to buy any kind of kitchen utensil.  Knives are sold without regulation at cooking conventions.  People are allowed to have knives loose at home, and not locked up in a knife safe.  People are even allowed to openly carry knives around with them, which people in the food preparation industry flagrantly do.  And there is no knife registry, so if a knife is used in an attack, it’s untraceable.

Now that Sweden has heavily regulated gun use, Sweden needs to regulate knife use.  Of course, once Sweden starts to regulate knives, then  killers will use hammers and saws, and those will need to be regulated, too.  Salad spoons could be sharpened into shanks, so they will need to be kept track of as well.

Once all metal utensils and equipment are under lock and key, then we will need to turn to shoelaces.  Shoelaces can be used as garrotes.  Shoes should be made without laces to prevent this.  Shoe companies should be sued every time someone is garroted with a shoelace.

There should also be a sharp object registry, so that all sharp objects that can be used for murder can be kept track of.  The same goes for heavy and blunt objects.  Once this is done, the only thing left to keep track of will be rocks.  A hard rock can be used to kill if handled improperly.

The Swedes will have to start a massive project to collect all hand-sized rocks and put them under lock and key in quarries, and a government permit should be required to use them.

Alternatively, we could realize that people kill, not objects, and that when we deprive everyone of objects, we deprive law-abiding citizens of the means for meaningful self-defense.  But that’s not a conclusion liberals will ever arrive at, because it involves a recognition of personal responsibility.

This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.