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In order to prevent under-age sales of knives and to reduce knife crime, the UK government is proposing that online retailers must ask for two forms of identification when someone buys a knife. This followed the admission by Axel Rudakubana that he killed three young girls last summer with a knife purchased from Amazon at just age 17, despite existing laws that prohibit selling most knives to children under 18.
Under the new proposals, anyone buying a knife would need to submit an identity document such as a passport and record a live video to prove their age. Stronger identity checks are one of the plans being considered for online knife sales in a review by Commander Stephen Clayman, the National Police Chief’s Council’s lead for knife crime. Currently, people who order knives online are only asked to enter their birth date and be ready to provide proof of age and a signature on delivery.
The UK government has pledged to reduce knife crime by half over the next decade and in pursuit of that goal announced new sanctions, including personal fines, for executives at tech companies that fail to tackle illegal knife sales on their platforms. The sharp rise in knife crime over the past decade underscores the necessity of stronger measures to prevent sales of knives to children, as reflected in government policy and initiatives.
As indicated in a recent opinion piece by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for the Sun newspaper, the internet purchase of deadly knives remains shockingly easy for British children. For those like the Southport killer, who demonstrated intent and carried knives as a child, the need for checks or barriers at the point of sale is evident. In parallel, retailers like Amazon have launched an investigation into their age-restricted sales process and how to enhance it.
On the first day of his trial, Rudakubana pleaded guilty to the murder of six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July 2020. The lack of checks that allowed him to order a knife online despite prior convictions and being referred to the government’s anti-extremism programme on multiple occasions was labelled by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper as a “total disgrace.
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