Liverpool campaigner wants 'massive fines' for online knife sellers
More youngsters using social media sites to buy them
A Liverpool anti-knife campaigner wants anyone who sells knives to kids online to be punished with 'massive fines'.
It's amid concerns that more and more youngsters are finding ways to get these weapons - including from social media sites.
The national lead for policing knife crime, Commander Stephen Clayman, said forces in England and Wales are keen to cut off the supply of weapons as part of efforts to stop more injuries and deaths.
Alan Walsh, from Anfield Boxing Club and founder of Real Men Don't Carry Knives, said:
"Do we introduce a photo ID on these social media sites and stuff like that? Whatever we come up with, there's always ways around it, but it's just that we've got make it more stringent and harder for these (people).
"These people who are selling the knives - they've got no morals. Anyone who sells knives willy-nilly across the internet - you've got no morals, you're only doing it to make money.
"Let's punish them"
"Let's punish them financially with massive, massive fines. Where the police go into shops, purchase testing, let's do that on the internet as well. Let's do that where we have young people buying these knives for the police or for the council and hit these people in the pocket big time.
"They can turn around as much as they like in their offices and say they didn't know it was young people buying them'... no, you do! There's lots of evidence to prove that young people are buying your knives, so let's hit them financially - that's the only thing these people understand - and then take their licences off them to trade.
"People say 'how do we can man that?' We can man it - it only takes one police officer with a couple of kids to go on the internet and buy a few (knives). We're not talking massive teams, it just takes a few (people), and then we hit them in the pocket.
"Hit them in the pocket"
"We're not going to stop it. We know that, let's not lie to ourselves, but we've got to face the facts as well that we're living in a more violent world where violence is there for us all to see and access to weapons is more regular than we've ever known before.
"In my opinion, the only way to stop these people is to hit them in the pocket and send out a message, but don't give them a £10,000 fine where they can afford to pay it. Hit them with £1million fines or above so they know this is going to cripple our business if we keep on doing this."
In the year to March 2023, 82% of teenage homicide victims were killed with a knife, compared to 73% in the previous year.
Laws around zombie knives, machetes and swords are to be tightened up from later this year to give police more powers to seize weapons found in private properties.