Knife Crime, then and now

I was reading an Enid Blyton tale to young SS2.0 at the weekend. It was called 'Treasure Island', and was about those bad boys the Famous Five. I suppose Enid wrote this in the 30's.

Anyway the four homies (aged I guess between 11 and 15) and the dog are given parental permission to spend a night on an island.

In their possession, they had pocket knives, a sheaf knife, an axe and matches (amongst other things), but no Mack 10 as far as I can tell. Even in my youth in the late 60's, a pocket knife was something that I used to carry around. However I used it for whittling, cutting string and general boy scout stuff. At no point did I think of sticking it into someone for offending my fragile sense of self-worth.

One cannot help noting that our attitudes to kids and knives have changed. Or at least the perception; total number of knife deaths in my county in 2006 was zero.

SS7