In some countries like the UK, even adults are discouraged and disallowed from carrying folding knives anywhere. Scenes like this are commonplace: https://twitter.com/MPSRegentsPark/status/974645778558980096

Okay, I was scrolling through this feed to find some proof that this is a joke account. But they are actually serious, right?

Are there laws in the UK that allow the police to enter your house and steal all your tools? For people who didn't click on the link: It is a picture with literally nothing but tools supposedly found during a "#weaponSweep"

This is fucking dystopian

I have all the knives they found in the wooden block in my kitchen. I would look like an arms dealer to them.

Just wait until narwhal tusk and fire extinguisher make it onto that list.

> Scenes like this

The link points to one example.

The OP didn't support their assertion that constables commonly confiscate screwdrivers during weapons sweeps, but I don't think OP intended the picture prove that, just to show the definition of "weapon" in use.

Here’s another example: https://i.redd.it/hzigm9tmiyn21.png

School children do occasionally stab each other using scissors (e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-47474896). Depending on the context, removing large scissors from the school premises is not obviously an overreaction. The ones pictured are much larger than required for most crafty purposes, and have sharp rather than rounded ends.

This is a red herring in any case, since schools in the US would be perfectly entitled to remove scissors, guns, machetes, etc. etc. from their premises if they chose to, regardless of the 2A.

Moreover, to the extent that items such as scissors actually are banned in any significant number of UK schools (I doubt it), this is a new development that has nothing to do with gun control. There has been no significant change to gun control legislation since the mid 90s, whereas I can attest that scissors were certainly available in UK schools into the mid 2000s.

You’re really fond of the fatuous technicalities, aren’t you? Of course confiscating knives, scissors, screwdrivers, and pliers isn’t technically gun control because these tools aren’t technically guns. Well-observed.

No, I meant to point out that schools in the US can confiscate anything they like - it's not a 2A issue.

The picture doesn't show the definition of 'weapon' in common use, as it's an isolated example.

If only the media were less sensational kids would not be under constant surveillance by the technology that HN posters are helping to develop.

> mainstream media pushing scares and sensationalist coverage

It's almost as if fear sells.

When someone's selling fear, only cowards are buying.