Two German regions are looking to ban the carrying of knives in public places due to an explosion in the number of violent attacks.
Bremen and Lower Saxony say they will be looking to implement a ban on the carrying of knives. Both have drafted a bill for the Federal Council that would outlaw carrying weapons in areas such as shopping centres, train stations and public events, German newspaper Die Welt reports.
The new legislation would also go further, extending the scope of the ban to any area in which there are many people gathered at one time with the template for the legislation arguing that knife attacks in these areas were “particularly dangerous and affect the security of the population.”
The types of knives able to be carried by members of the public will see changes as well. Previously, individuals were allowed fixed knives up to 12 centimetres long but the new law will reduce that to six centimetres. All spring-loaded knives will see a blanket ban, regardless of their length.
In recent years, knife crime has become a major issue in German cities, to the extent where last month a German woman’s magazine published an article giving out advice on how to treat stab wounds.
While knife crime remains a major issue, and there have been several high-profile stabbing cases such as incidents earlier this year where five German cities saw stabbing attacks on the same day, exact knife-crime statistics have been hard to calculate.
In an article published earlier in the year, Die Welt pointed out that detailed statistics were unavailable and that it could take years for the government to compile the statistics into the annual Federal Police statistics data.