Never Enough: German Government Pushes Knife Control in Wake of Terror Attack

On August 23, an attacker armed with a knife stabbed three people to death and wounded eight others at a festival in Solingen, Germany. A report from the Associated Press stated, “federal prosecutors said that [the suspect] shared the radical ideology of the Islamic State extremist group — and was acting on those beliefs when he stabbed his victims repeatedly from behind in the head and upper body.”

Less than 72 hours after the stabbing, Germany’s Social Democratic Party Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, announced that the government would be pursuing new knife controls. The chancellor stated, “We will now have to tighten up the weapons regulations... in particular with regard to the use of knives… I'm sure this will happen very quickly.”

Regarding the contours of the knife controls, BBC reported, “Knives are to be banned at most public events including markets and sport as well as on public transport, and there will be a blanket ban on flick knives.” An item from Deutsche Welle provided further detail,

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) called for the law to be changed so that only blades of 6 centimeters (2.36 inches) would be allowed to be carried in public, rather than the current 12 centimeters. An exception would be made for household knives in their original packaging. Switchblades would be banned altogether.

Reports state that under German law the alleged attacker shouldn’t have been in the country. Deutsche Welle noted, “Authorities had planned to deport the suspected attacker to Bulgaria last year, but this did not take place because the man had not been at his refugee accommodation when officials tried to do so.”

Many Americans are likely to find the notion of knife controls absurd, and for good reason. If officials can’t keep makeshift edged weapons out of prisons, how can a country like Germany expect to stop evildoers from getting their hands on knives?

However, others might recognize the frustrating parallels between Germany’s recent knife control effort and America’s battle over gun control. When authorities fail in their duty to uphold the law - whether out of incompetence, lack of resources, or, as is increasingly the case, a conscious political decision - it’s often the law-abiding who end up facing new restrictions.

Consider the District of Columbia. The leadership of Washington, D.C. advocates for more gun control, citing the city’s crime problem. The federal enclave has gone so far as to demand neighboring jurisdictions enact gun controls.

But is D.C. doing all it can to address violent crime by vigorously prosecuting known criminals?

A December 2021 study from the federal enclave’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) found that “In Washington, DC, most gun violence is tightly concentrated.” The report went on to explain,

This small number of very high risk individuals are identifiable, their violence is predictable, and therefore it is preventable. Based on the assessment of data and the series of interviews conducted, [National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform] estimates that within a year, there are at least 500 identifiable people who rise to this level of very high risk, and likely no more than 200 at any one given time. These individuals comprise approximately 60-70% of all gun violence in the District.

According to the report, “Approximately 86 percent of homicide victims and suspects were known to the criminal justice system prior to the incident. Among all victims and suspects, about 46 percent had been previously incarcerated.” Further, “most victims and suspects with prior criminal offenses had been arrested about 11 times for about 13 different offenses by the time of the homicide.”

In May, the Heritage Foundation published an item discussing the District’s lackluster prosecutorial practices under U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves, analyzing information from the D.C. Sentencing Commission’s 2023 Annual Report.

The Heritage piece noted,

Every day, law enforcement officers in the District of Columbia arrest felons who are in possession of a firearm. Every day, those cases are presented to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for prosecution.

Under Graves’ tepid leadership over the past two years, over 2,000 gun cases either were not prosecuted, dropped, or pled down to lesser charges in D.C. Superior Court, according to the D.C. Sentencing Commission’s annual report.

Law-abiding citizens shouldn’t have to pay for government officials’ failure to uphold the law with their rights.