Although the number of fatal stabbings has mostly held steady over the past 10 years, headline-grabbing attacks and an overall rise in knife crime have stoked anxieties.

A familiar horror reached Pooja Kanda first on social media: There had been a sword attack in London. And then Kanda, who was home alone at the time, saw a detail she dreaded and knew all too well.

A man with a sword had killed a 14-year-old boy who was walking to school. Two years ago, her 16-year-old son, Ronan, was killed by two sword-wielding schoolmates while walking to a neighbor’s to borrow a PlayStation controller.

“It took me back,” Kanda, who lives near Birmingham, said about Daniel Anjorin’s April 30 killing in an attack in London’s Hainault district that also wounded four people. “It’s painful to see that this has happened all over again.”

In parts of the world that ban or strictly regulate gun ownership, including Britain and much of the rest of Europe, knives and other types of blades are often the weapons of choice used in crimes. Many end up in the hands of children, as they can be cheap and easy to get.

  • Flying SquidMEnglish
    3•7 months ago

    You might not have noticed, but I am a moderator. If I wanted to silence you, I certainly could. I do not use that power to do so just because I disagree with someone. You are free to disagree with me and anyone else in this community as long as you follow the community rules.

    • @[email protected]English
      -1•7 months ago

      Your first thought was to head off an argument against your train of thought, you don’t need your mod powers to do what I described. I do appreciate you having more restraint than more than one Reddit mod I’ve encountered thoigh

      • Flying SquidMEnglish
        4•7 months ago

        Of course I would need mod powers to silence you. I have no other way of silencing you. Your replying to me proves that. You’re not a victim. Your voice is as heard as everyone else’s here.

        • @[email protected]English
          1•7 months ago

          I didn’t mean physically silence, more rhetorically silence them by assuming an argument before you were ever engaged, it comes across as an attempt to restrict discourse. If that was not your intent I apologize

          • Flying SquidMEnglish
            1•7 months ago

            That is not rhetorical silence either.

            Silence may become an effective rhetorical practice when people choose to be silent for a specific purpose.[3] It has not merely been recognized as a theory but also as a phenomenon with practical advantages. When silence becomes rhetorical, it is intentional since it reflects a meaning. Rhetorical silence targets an audience rather than the rhetorician.[4]

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silence

            Assuming an argument someone is going to make in no way silences anyone. Especially when I didn’t specify who I was talking to. All you had to say was, “I don’t agree.” Instead, you decided to point fingers and make this personal by saying:

            When you are done tripping over yourself to silence those you disagree with

            Notice that the multiple other people who replied to me both did not make a personal attack and did not feel silenced, and if you want to apologize for something, apologize for that.

            Furthermore, while I do not moderate discussions I am involved with, personal attacks are against community rules, so I hope you don’t think this is something you can normally get away with.

            We could have had a legitimate discussion, but you decided to come in feeling like this was personal. I have no interest in discussing anything with you now.