Our children are stabbing each other on our playgrounds. Violent mentally ill people are driving knives into strangers for the color of their skin or the faith they keep. New Yorkers are waking up every morning knowing that an encounter on the subway, in a bodega line or walking home from school could end in bloodshed and too often the law treats that violence as something less than the crime it is.
I am outraged, and I am not alone. Recent reports out of Brooklyn that a 12‑year‑old stabbed in a Brownsville playground, and a Jewish man nearly killed in a brutally motivated attack are not isolated tragedies but signs of a pattern: knives are being used as weapons of choice, and the penalties offenders face are often far lighter than those for comparable crimes committed with firearms. That disparity sends a message: use a knife and you may get off easier. That message emboldens the violent offenders and terrifies the rest of us.
The legislative response should be simple and immediate: if you carry and use a knife to commit a crime, it must be treated with the same seriousness as using an illegal firearm. The length of the blade, the fold of the knife, or the technical classification of the implement should not be the deciding factor when someone deliberately injures another person or tries to take a life…