By Lynne Stewart

THE SCOTTISH Executive has stepped up the battle to beat the blades with the launch yesterday of a new campaign aimed at challenging attitudes towards knife carrying across Scotland.

Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson unveiled details of the latest drive in a bid to cut the number of people who carry offensive weapons and in turn reduce the amount of murders and serious assaults.

The eight-week £580,000 campaign, entitled Knives—Let’s Not Scar Another Generation, includes radio, newspaper and bus adverts, outdoor posters and marketing to try and ram the message home.

A roadshow will visit areas most affected by violent crime.

This latest effort follows the national Safer Scotland knives amnesty when 968 weapons were handed in to Tayside Police—a haul that exceeded the expectations of Det Supt Jim Cameron, who is in charge of the campaign in Tayside.

Following the amnesty, hand-held “wands” were issued for use by Scotland’s police forces with 30 delivered to the force, and a number are routinely deployed to officers in Dundee city centre.

In the first five weeks after the amnesty Tayside Police confiscated just 11 knives, after carrying out searches in key areas using mobile scanners and information from the public to track down those still carrying blades.

Most recent figures for the area show 291 people have been charged with possessing a knife or offensive weapon in the past two years.

Accident and emergency specialists at Ninewells Hospital revealed last month that a vicious circle of alcohol-fuelled violence and retribution was contributing to almost daily slashings and stabbings.

Laws introduced in September mean anyone caught carrying a knife will be remanded in custody until they appear in court. The maximum penalty has risen from two to four years.

Executive figures showed that crimes involving offensive weapons are lower in Tayside than anywhere else in Scotland.

The campaign was welcomed by MSP Marlyn Glen, who said it will help address the worrying reality that carrying a knife is seen as normal.

“We have already seen the Scottish Executive take tough action with new legislation on knife carrying. However it was clear that more needed to be done to challenge the idea that carrying a knife was acceptable in some communities.”

Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson said, “In the past year we have toughened the law on knife crime, the Crown has toughened prosecution of knife carrying, and we have taken over 12,500 deadly weapons off the street with our first national amnesty.

“However we know that enforcement alone cannot solve Scotland’s knife culture ...

“Today’s campaign highlights the work being done to rid Scotland’s streets of this problem, while challenging the idea that children need to grow up in a society where knife carrying is normal.

“We all need to challenge that notion.”

Det Chief Supt John Carnochan, head of the violence reduction unit, said, “If you carry a knife for protection, that means you intend to use it to stab someone and that’s not acceptable.

“The police and other agencies will continue to play their part but we need everyone—brothers, dads, mums, girlfriends—to challenge this culture so that together we can change it for the next generation.”