Metropolitan Police Commander Stephen Clayman, the national lead for knife crime, said: “Bizarrely, it is harder to buy paracetamol in some respects than it is to buy a knife. And that can’t be right.”
He told the PA news agency: “I could go to a legitimate dealer and buy 300 knives, and the dealer has no obligation to tell police that someone’s just bought that, or the fact I bought five knives each week for the last 10 weeks.”
Other blades are bulk bought and resold illegally via social media on the so-called grey market.
“Because then what happens is, when they’re selling them on social media via their particular accounts, they are selling indiscriminately to children and young men, predominantly men, because there are no age verification safeguards.
It comes as the Home Office revealed a raft of anti-knife crime plans, which will see retailers report bulk or suspicious sales of knives to police and increased jail terms for selling weapons to children.
The latest plans come on top of proposals already announced to make knife buyers show photo ID at both sale and delivery.
“We know that through the tragic stories we hear and have heard, but it continues that there are huge flaws that need to be addressed.”
Last year Rayis Nibeel, a teenage drug dealer who murdered father-of-two Omar Khan, 38, in Luton, was found to have bought 65 knives online using an account set up in his mother’s name while he was under 18.
A similar picture emerged with one of the teenage killers of 16-year-old Ronan Kanda, who was murdered in a case of mistaken identity by two boys who were able to buy knives with no identity checks.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told PA: “We need stronger action to tackle this dangerous knife crime that is killing children, and we’ve seen lethal weapons in the hands of children, and we cannot go on with families being devastated in this way.
The measures include plans to create an offence of possessing a weapon with intent for violence. Currently a similar offence exists for someone found in possession of a gun, but not a knife.
A new national police unit to tackle online knife sales will also be piloted.
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