In June 2015, in the wake of another mass shooting incident that left nine victims dead at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, debate about the issue of gun control flared up again in the U.S. In the midst of that debate, a number of social media users pointed to a November 2014 Counter Current News article purportedly describing an effort by British police to disarm the citizenry of dangerous "pointy knives":
The new “Save a Life — Surrender Your Knife” program is in full swing and police are telling us that they have joined forces with an already growing trend in the United Kingdom to ban “pointy” knives.
Lancashire Police tell us that an “amnesty” program began at the end of August, and “more than 800 knives have been handed in across the county — including swords, machetes and commando knives.”
“The amnesty was extended for a further week owing to its success,” Lancashire Police representatives explained.
The Lancashire department explains that their “officers have now given their backing to a national initiative designed to raise awareness of knife crime and encourage the surrender of dangerous weapons.”
Since "knife control" is a subject often rhetorically employed in gun control discussions, many readers pondered whether the article was yet another bit of satire (or clickbaiting fake news).
In fact, the web site for the ‘Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife,’ which urges the public to surrender knives in order to reduce "knife crime" in the UK is still online (although it doesn't appear to have been updated since February 2015):
Lancaster Constabulary's web site also still displays a page on "Knife Crime" that describes the ‘Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife’ program:
Lancashire Constabulary has joined forces with the ground-breaking national anti-knife crime campaign ‘Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife’, a national initiative designed to raise awareness of knife crime and encourage the surrender of dangerous weapons.
The British Ironwork Centre, which is coordinating the project, intends to use knives handed into police to create a 20 feet high guardian angel sculpture in memory of those whose lives have so tragically been lost.
Knife bins at locations across Lancashire, including job centres, community centres and leisure centres have yielded over 3,000 knives for the project and although the bins have now been removed, you can also hand in any knife at any police station with a front counter.
And that page links to the web site of the "No Knives Better Lives" program, which seeks to "raise awareness of the consequences of carrying a knife":