A familiar horror reached Pooja Kanda first on social media: There had been a sword attack in London. And then Kanda, who was home alone at the time, saw a detail she dreaded and knew all too well.

A man with a sword had killed a 14-year-old boy who was walking to school. Two years ago, her 16-year-old son, Ronan, was killed by two sword-wielding schoolmates while walking to a neighbor’s to borrow a PlayStation controller.

“It took me back,” Kanda, who lives near Birmingham, said about Daniel Anjorin’s April 30 killing in an attack in London’s Hainault district that also wounded four people. “It’s painful to see that this has happened all over again.”

In parts of the world that ban or strictly regulate gun ownership, including Britain and much of the rest of Europe, knives and other types of blades are often the weapons of choice used in crimes. Many end up in the hands of children, as they can be cheap and easy to get.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    7 months ago

    Okay, what’s the ‘why’ of killing significantly more people during such attacks? Because it seems to me like simply having the ability to do so with a gun when it’s far more difficult to do so with a knife is part of the why.

    • Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.com
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      7 months ago

      Buddy, you’re obsessing over the means. Focus on motive.

      I’d rehash the same points about how a person can commit mass murder with a car, but for guys like you talking about murder weapons is like being a pig in shit.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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        7 months ago

        You didn’t answer my question:

        what’s the ‘why’ of killing significantly more people during such attacks?

        You can claim people commit mass murder like that with a car, but can you show that car mass murders come even close to events like the Pulse nightclub attack, the Las Vegas mass shooting or Uvalde?

        So, again, what is the why?

        • Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.com
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          7 months ago

          Yeah, I didn’t answer your question.

          I’m refusing to give you what you want.

          You’ve been warned that this is an exercise in futility. I won’t engage in it no matter how much you want to.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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            7 months ago

            It is indeed an exercise in futility when someone refuses to answer the question of why after telling that person that they’re not focusing on the why.