词条 | Draft:Offensive weapon law in the UK |
释义 |
UKEngland/WalesUnder England/Wales' Prevention of Crime Act 1953, Section 1 states it is an offence to carry an offensive weapon on or about the person whilst in a public place without a lawful authority or reasonable excuse. Such prohibited weapons may include a knuckleduster, baton, hammer or knife. Both subsection 4 of this section and the Court of Appeals decision R v Simpson (1983) consider essentially three types of offensive weapon:
An offensive weapon is defined in this section as "any article made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person, or intended by the person having it with him for such use by him or by some other person"[1] The legislation further defines a "public place" under subsection 4: "In this section, “public place” is taken to include any highway and any other premises or place to which at the material time the public have or are permitted to have access, whether on payment or otherwise. This is mirrored through R v Kane (1965) [2]. For example, the area behind the sales counter of petrol station, a fenced off building site or an office building would be not considered a public place because the public obviously do not have lawful access to such areas. List of offensive weaponsSection 141 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 essentially provides a 100% countrywide ban on the possession of many named offensive weapons which are made as such, even on private premises[3]: "Any person who manufactures, sells or hires or offers for sale or hire, exposes or has in his possession for the purpose of sale or hire, or lends or gives to any other person, a weapon to which this section applies shall be guilty of an offence" The items this Section 141 relate to are listed under Schedule 1 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988[4]. Exemptions are provided for weapons over 100 years old from the time of the offence, but the list as it currently stands is:
Although this list doesn't specifically prohibit the possession of these items per se, it would be hard to justify the lawful acquisition of the item to the Police/courts in the first place. N.B. Items covered under the Firearms Act 1968 and crossbows are exempt from being added to this section as per subsection 2. The most recent amendment to the the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order further introduced a ban on the zombie knife in 2016. The same wording and general countrywide prohibition is applied to switchblades, gravity knives and flick knives under Section 1 of the Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959[5]: "...any knife which has a blade which opens automatically by hand pressure applied to a button, spring or other device in or attached to the handle of the knife, sometimes known as a “flick knife” or “flick gun”; or (b) any knife which has a blade which is released from the handle or sheath thereof by the force of gravity or the application of centrifugal force and which, when released, is locked in place by means of a button, spring, lever, or other device, sometimes known as a “gravity knife”. It should be noted that assisted opening knives although very similar in appearance to the above switchblade in definition, are not yet illegal to buy, sell, own or transfer because the knife is not opened through anything in or attached to the handle. Section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 also creates an offence of having a pointed or bladed article in a public place without good reason or lawful authority[6]. Certain exemptions exist, namely if the knife is a pocket knife that does not lock in place and if the cutting edge (not blade) is under 3 inches. It is also a recognised defence for a person charged under this section to prove that he had the article with him for use at work, for religious reasons or as part of any national costume. Reasonable excuseVarious reasonable excuses exist for the above offences. The offence of carrying an offensive weapon in a public place appears not to pertain to something made, adapted or intended to be used on animals or things other than humans as the offence wording states "offensive weapon” means any article made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person, or intended by the person having it with him for such use by him. An offensive weapon obtained, possessed and used immediately preceding an imminent attack in a public place may well be considered reasonable excuse. This could be either an item made as an offensive weapon, adapted or an every day item that was not intended originally to be carried as an offensive weapon (e.g. golf clubs), but during an imminent attack they rightfully became a "weapon of opportunity". This was clarified in Evans v Hughes [1972] QBD[7] where the justices held that it was not relevant in the case "for the defence of reasonable excuse to be successful there had to be an imminent particular threat, not the constant carriage of an offensive weapon on account of some enduring threat or danger". References1. ^https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/1-2/14/section/1 2. ^http://swarb.co.uk/regina-v-kane-1965/ 3. ^https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/33/section/141 4. ^http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1988/2019/schedule/made This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright. 5. ^http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/7-8/37/section/1 6. ^https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/33/section/139 7. ^https://sixthformlaw.info/02_cases/mod3a/cases_65_gen_def_mistake.htm |
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