Zombie knives and machetes can easily still be bought online – despite being banned this week.
It is now illegal to own, manufacture, import, or supply zombie knives in the UK as of Tuesday – but we found zombie knives available for shipping to the UK from a quick Google search.
The government ran a one-month surrender scheme which ended on Monday, allowing owners of “zombie-style” weapons to hand them in and receive up to £30 compensation.
One zombie knife, a “tac xtreame dagger”, is available for sale by a user on an online marketplace.
A “Fantasy Machete” is available to be shipped to the UK from a US-based weapons website.
The site’s terms and conditions say: “It shall be the buyer’s responsibility to comply with all Federal, State and Local laws.”
The sellers we found are not UK-based, so they are not subject to UK laws. Only a UK-based buyer of these weapons would be committing a crime.
We found a green “Biohazard” zombie machete for sale on a different website.
A weapon is classed as “zombie-style” if it has a blade over eight inches, a sharp point and a plain cutting edge.
Zombie-style weapons also have at least one of the following: serrations (other than a section of two inches maximum next to the handle), more than one hole in the blade, spikes, or more than two sharp points (excluding one near the handle).
The ban is part of a string of new Government measures aimed at halving crime in a decade.
The government has also launched the Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime which brings together campaign groups, families of people who have tragically lost their lives to knife crime, young people who have been impacted and community leaders, in a bid to make Britain a safer place for the next generation.
From this week anyone caught with a zombie-style knife or machete could face time behind bars.
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
Featured image: Gerber Legendary Blades machete/saw combo. Copyright Dana60Cummins via Wikimedia Commons per this licence
