'Bet you don't sell many of these'
A Manchester Evening News investigation has revealed just how easy it is for people to get hold of knives and crossbows with lethal potential.
Several high-profile attacks have raised concerns about whether existing laws on dangerous weapons, such as knives and crossbows, may not be fit for purpose. There's a lot to take in but I eventually set my sights on a pistol crossbow. From the box alone, it looks terrifying and capable of doing some serious damage in the wrong hands.
I take my receipt and leave the shop, making the short walk through the shopping centre and back to my car. Once there, I stash the bag containing my new purchase in the boot and drive away. I drove to Stockport and arrived at about 4.15pm. I tried to enter the shop, but a note on the door said ‘back in five minutes’. I went for a walk to fill the time, came back and the store was open.
But surrounding those were several knives sitting on the glass shelves, side by side. I asked the man if they were for sale, to which he replied: “Everything is for sale.” It was much larger than the first knife, with a serrated edge on one side and a single, sharp blade on the other. To my untrained eye, it’s terrifying. We've since measured the blade to be 13 inches long.
I asked if I could get a carrier bag for the item, which came inside a fabric cover, and he told me he would package it ‘properly’. He took a box, placed the weapon inside and handed it to me in a blue carrier bag - the type you would see in abundance on Bury New Road before GMP’s recent crackdown. The van drove off without any officers approaching me. I walked back to the car, as inconspicuously as possible, and drove back to the M.E.N. office.
In 2022, a man armed with a crossbow was arrested by armed police after he carried the weapon onto a busy bus in Wythenshawe. Responding to a petition which called for tighter regulation of crossbows, the government claimed that existing regulation was suitable. They said incidents such as the one which resulted in the death of Mr Gilmer were “fortunately very rare".
Former home secretary Priti Patel ordered the review of crossbow rules after would-be assassin Jaswant Singh Chail was encouraged by an AI chatbot to break into Windsor Castle on Christmas Day 2021 with a loaded crossbow. From September, laws around zombie knives, machetes and swords are to be tightened up, giving police increased powers to seize weapons found in private properties.
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