Getting your hands on a knife is easier than you think

Dubai, March 9, 2010 (Gulf News) - In the wake of last Saturday's senseless violence in which a 13-year-old boy was beaten, stabbed 11 times and left to die in front of his house by neighbourhood kids over a silly argument, police raised questions about how active a role parents are playing in their children's upbringing.

But with stabbing cases becoming more and more common in Dubai courtrooms, we have to also ask how easy it is to obtain knives on Dubai's streets.

Gulf News took to the streets to see how difficult it is to purchase weapons we initially though were illegal.

Our aim was to see if we could get items like switch-blades, flip-knives, butterfly-knives or brass knuckles.

We stepped into dodgy looking shops in Karama and Bur Dubai, asking where we might be able to get our hands on "cool" knives and other weapons.

The responses we got ranged from anger to annoyance and bemusement. But they all came to the same conclusion.

"Ten years ago you could find stuff like that sold in Karama or Satwa, but today there is no chance. There is no demand for these kinds of things anymore," said a shopkeeper in Karama.

But just around the corner from Al Fahidi Street in Bur Dubai there is a general store with scores of knives in its window display and the sign above them reads "The Knives the professionals use."

The shop has sections of steel-toed boots and coveralls, kitchen accessories and camping and survival gear.

The display cases included blades from meat-cleavers, hatchets and hand-axes to Swiss army knives, decorative blades and hunting and skinning knives; this store had it all on display and for sale.

Prices ranged from Dh200 to more than Dh1,000.

According to the salesperson most of the knives are bought in bulk and shipped overseas to places like Pakistan as hunting accessories.

He then produced a catalogue and said that they can get anything in it that we might want.

Items in the catalogue included almost everything we saw displayed in the shop in addition to daggers and throwing knives which he said were also obtainable.

Camping accessories

According to the salesperson all these items are legal and are considered camping and hunting accessories.

And it suddenly dawned on us why we've been having a hard time getting illegal knives. If this wide selection of blades is available legally, over the counter, with no age restrictions, why would anyone want to go to all the trouble of getting illegal knives?