Here in the US, we complain about governments passing absurdly vague and nonsensical laws about firearms. In the UK, they're several steps further down the road of civilian disarmament insanity. Now crossbows and "broadhead arrows" are in the crosshairs of Parliament.
And this is on top of the news from a few weeks ago that due to escalating knife crime in the UK, the Labour Party and actor Idris Elba want to ban... swords.
Is there a problem of rampant medieval reenactors raiding villages? Are Renaissance Faires hotbeds of homicide? Are antiquarians committing assault? Obviously not. As is always the case, politicians respond to crime primarily by targeting innocent people and inanimate objects instead of getting to the root of criminal activity.
Swords and crossbows are apparently used in such a minuscule number of crimes that it has no statistical significance. It's a bit like how legislation in the US fixates on modern semiautomatic rifles like the AR15 despite the rarity of their use in crime. Machetes are very useful tools in many environments. So are hatchets. Hammers, too. If people use hand tools as weapons, it does not invalidate the primary purpose or justify regulation.
When critics point out a slippery slope from "common-sense regulation" to total disarmament, it isn't a fallacy, it's an observation of a common trend in regulatory overreach based on the fundamental problem of regulation and the persistence of the politician's syllogism. Don't be a sucker. Don't buy the prohibition rhetoric. Don't surrender an inch of liberty.
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