Offensive weapon


An offensive weapon is a tool made, adapted or intended for inflicting physical injury upon another person.

Legality

England and Wales

Under England and Wales' Prevention of Crime Act 1953, Section 1 states that carrying an offensive weapon on or about a person while in a public place without a lawful authority or reasonable excuse is an offence. Prohibited weapons may include a knuckleduster, baton, hammer, or knife.
Both subsection 4 of this section and the Court of Appeals decision R v Simpson consider essentially three types of offensive weapon:
  1. An offensive weapon per se, i.e., one that is made for causing injury to the person
  2. those adapted for such a purpose, e.g., a baseball bat with a nail embedded in it
  3. items not made or adapted, but merely intended to be used as an offensive weapon, even if they have some other legitimate use, e.g., car keys held between the knuckles or a cup of bleach which is intended to be thrown in someone's face
An offensive weapon is defined in this section as "any article made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person, or intended by the person having it with him for such use by him or by some other person"
The legislation further defines a "public place" under subsection 4:
"In this section, 'public place' is taken to include any highway and any other premises or place to which at the material time the public have or are permitted to have access, whether on payment or otherwise." This is mirrored through R v Kane. For example, any private property e.g., a person's home or personal vehicle, the area behind the sales counter of a petrol station, a fenced off building site or an office building would be not considered a public place because the public do not have lawful access to such areas. This is because the Prevention of Crime Act 1953 only prohibits offensive weapons in a public place.
A Constable may arrest without warrant any person whom he has reasonable cause to believe to be committing an offence under subsection of section 1, if the Constable is not satisfied as to that person's identity or place of residence, or has reasonable cause to believe that it is necessary to arrest him to prevent the commission by him of any other offence in the course of committing which an offensive weapon might be used.

List of offensive weapons

Section 141 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 creates the Either way offence of "any person who manufactures, sells or hires or offers for sale or hire, exposes or has in his possession for the purpose of sale or hire, or lends or gives to any other person, a weapon to which this section applies". These weapons are listed below.
As of May 2019, Part 4 Section 46 the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 added subparagraph 1A to Section 141 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 which created the summary offence of possession of the following offensive weapons "in private" :
The weapons this section relates to are listed under Schedule 1 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 Order 1988. Exemptions are provided for weapons over 100 years old from the time of the offence as well as crossbows and anything under the Firearms Act 1968. Section 141 creates an offence of importation any weapon to which this section applies. The list as it currently stands is:
  • a knuckleduster, that is, a band of metal or other hard material worn on one or more fingers, and designed to cause injury, and any weapon incorporating a knuckleduster;
  • a swordstick, that is, a hollow walking-stick or cane containing a blade which may be used as a sword;
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "handclaw", being a band of metal or other hard material from which a number of sharp spikes protrude, and worn around the hand;
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "belt buckle knife", being a buckle which incorporates or conceals a knife;
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "push dagger", being a knife the handle of which fits within a clenched fist and the blade of which protrudes from between two fingers;
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "hollow kubotan", being a cylindrical container containing a number of sharp spikes
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "footclaw", being a bar of metal or other hard material from which a number of sharp spikes protrude, and worn strapped to the foot;
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "shuriken", "shaken" or "death star", being a hard non-flexible plate having three or more sharp radiating points and designed to be thrown;
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "balisong" or "butterfly knife", being a blade enclosed by its handle, which is designed to split down the middle, without the operation of a spring or other mechanical means, to reveal the blade;
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "telescopic truncheon", being a truncheon which extends automatically by hand pressure applied to a button, spring or other device in or attached to its handle;
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "blowpipe" or "blow gun", being a hollow tube out of which hard pellets or darts are shot by the use of breath;
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "kusari gama", being a length of rope, cord, wire or chain fastened at one end to a sickle;
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "kyoketsu shoge", being a length of rope, cord, wire or chain fastened at one end to a hooked knife;
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "manrikigusari" or "kusari", being a length of rope, cord, wire or chain fastened at each end to a hard weight or hand grip;
  • a disguised knife that is any knife which has a concealed blade or concealed sharp point and is designed to appear to be an everyday object of a kind commonly carried on the person or in a handbag, briefcase, or other hand luggage."
  • a stealth knife, that is a knife or spike, which has a blade, or sharp point, made from a material that is not readily detectable by apparatus used for detecting metal and which is not designed for domestic use or for use in the processing, preparation or consumption of food or as a toy;
  • a straight, side-handled or friction-lock truncheon."
  • a sword with a curved blade of 50 centimetres or over in length; and for the purposes of this sub-paragraph, the length of the blade shall be the straight line distance from the top of the handle to the tip of the blade."
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "zombie knife", "zombie killer knife" or "zombie slayer knife", being a blade with a cutting edge; a serrated edge; and images or words that suggest that it is to be used for the purpose of violence."
  • the weapon sometimes known as a "cyclone knife" or "spiral knife" being a weapon with a handle, a blade with two or more cutting edges, each of which forms a helix, and a sharp point at the end of the blade."
Due to the sweeping implementation of the Offensive Weapons Act 2019, Part 4 Section 46 redefined the previous offence wording of "manufacturing, sells, offers for sale or hire, lending", etc. in relation to the above was replaced with subsection 1 which states: "Any person who possesses a weapon to which this section applies in private is guilty of an offence". This takes the ban from a total effective one to an outright one. "Private" is also defined as "...a place other than a public place, school premises, further education premises, or a prison."
N.B. Items covered under the Firearms Act 1968 and crossbows are exempt from being added to this section as per subsection 2.
The most recent amendment to the list of prohibited weapons in the Criminal Justice Act 1988 Order further introduced a ban on the zombie knife in 2016.
Importing any offensive weapon listed in this section is also an offence under Section 141 of this Act.
The same wording and general countrywide prohibition is applied to switchblades, gravity knives, and flick knives under Section 1 of the Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959:
...any knife which has a blade which opens automatically by hand pressure applied to a button, spring or other device in or attached to the handle of the knife, sometimes known as a "flick knife" or "flick gun"; or any knife which has a blade which is released from the handle or sheath thereof by the force of gravity or the application of centrifugal force and which, when released, is locked in place by means of a button, spring, lever, or other device, sometimes known as a "gravity knife".

As of May 2019, the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 further included the definition of all Assisted opening knives which did not meet this definition as not opened through anything in or attached to the handle. Part 4, Paragraph 43, therefore added the following definition to Section 1 Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959:
...any knife which has a blade which opens automatically from the closed position to the fully opened position, or from a partially opened position to the fully opened position, by manual pressure applied to a button, spring or other device in or attached to the knife, and which is sometimes known as a "flick knife" or "flick gun""

Section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 also creates an offence of having a pointed or bladed article in a public place without good reason or lawful authority. Certain exemptions exist, namely if the knife is a pocket knife that does not lock in place and if the cutting edge is under 3 inches. It is also a recognised defence for a person charged under this section to prove that he had the article with him for use at work, for religious reasons, or as part of any national costume.

Reasonable excuse/defences

Lawful authority/reasonable excuse
Despite the carrying of an offensive weapon in a public place being a criminal offence, suspected offenders are given the ability to raise a defence on the civil burden of proof, i.e., on the balance of probabilities. This defence is that the offender, on the balance of probabilities, had lawful authority or reasonable excuse for having the weapon in public.