Tucker to Piers: Strict Gun Laws Gave UK Zero Gun Crime… But Knife Epidemic Proves Disarmament Doesn’t Work

Tucker Carlson and Piers Morgan have turned Britain’s crime debate into a proxy war over freedom, security and what it really means to be “disarmed.” One side points to the United Kingdom’s vanishingly low gun violence as proof that strict firearms laws work. The other counters that a surge in knife crime and youth stabbings shows that taking guns out of civilian hands does not remove lethal danger from the streets.

The clash between these two broadcasters resonates far beyond a studio set, distilling a broader argument on both sides of the Atlantic about whether tight weapons controls save lives, simply displace violence onto other tools, or do some of both. Recent data on firearms, knives and homicide in England and Wales gives that argument sharper edges than any viral soundbite.

The UK’s firearm regime that Tucker attacks and Piers defends

The starting point for the Carlson versus Morgan exchange is the United Kingdom’s unusually restrictive approach to guns. According to a House of Commons briefing, The UK has some of the strictest gun laws in the world, with civilian ownership tightly controlled through licensing and certification. People who want to own guns for legitimate reasons, such as sport shooting or as part of their work, must pass rigorous background checks and meet storage and suitability requirements, and firearms offences carry heavy penalties.

That structure reflects a long political consensus that public safety takes priority over any broad right to armed self defence. Over decades, Parliament has layered bans on handguns, automatic weapons and many semi automatic rifles on top of licensing rules that already made casual ownership rare. The result is a system that treats guns as specialised tools for farmers, pest controllers and target shooters rather than as a symbol of personal liberty.

Tucker Carlson has seized on that difference in his exchanges with British guests. In one widely shared clip, he presses the idea that British people are “slaves” because they cannot defend themselves with firearms, contrasting that with a United States where, in his framing, “we have so many guns cuz we’re free.” In another segment, he challenges the idea that London is safe, mocking official reassurances that “everything’s totally fine and if you complain about it you’re going to jail,” and asking whether the British have any right to bear arms at all.

Piers Morgan, by contrast, leans heavily on Britain’s low gun violence to defend the status quo. He has argued that the absence of widespread firearms ownership is a public good, not a sign of servitude, and that mass shootings and everyday gun homicides on the American scale are virtually unknown in Britain precisely because ordinary citizens are not armed.

Firearm crime is low, but not zero

The data backs Morgan on one central point. Gun violence in the United Kingdom is rare by international standards. In a public statement shared on social media, Ben Goldsborough, identified as MP for South Norfolk, highlighted that in the year ending September 25 there were 4, 851 recorded firearms offenses in England and Wales, a 9 percent decrease on the previous period. His message framed that figure as evidence that gun violence is rare in England and Wales, while stressing that every life lost is still a tragedy.

National crime bulletins show a similar pattern. Official statistics for England and Wales report that the number of homicides, across all methods, has decreased compared with peaks earlier in the century and remains relatively low for a population of more than 59 million. One bulletin on Crime in England explains that police recorded crime is not always a precise indicator of general trends, because recording practices change, yet it still offers insight into lower volume, higher harm offences such as homicide and serious violence.

Separate analysis of firearm offences in England and Wales notes that non air weapons account for a majority of recorded gun crime. One parliamentary research briefing states that Non air firearms (all firearms that are not air weapons, for example handguns, shotguns, rifles) accounted for 69% of all firearm offences, with the remainder involving air weapons or imitation guns. Within that category, violence and robbery dominate, rather than mass casualty shootings of the type that regularly shock the United States.

London offers a more granular example. Local reporting drawing on Office for National Statistics data has described how firearm offences in the capital have fallen by roughly two thirds since 2010. Figures from the ONS, the Office for National Statistics, indicate that both total firearm incidents and those excluding air weapons have declined, even as the city’s population has grown. That trend undercuts any claim that Britain is teetering on the edge of American style gun violence.

None of this means gun crime is “zero,” as some rhetorical shorthand might suggest. Firearms are still used in homicides, gang disputes and domestic abuse cases. Goldsborough himself has warned in Parliament that many risks arise not only from organised crime, but from breakdowns in systems meant to protect people, particularly in cases of domestic abuse. Yet compared with countries where guns are widely owned, the scale of firearm harm in England and Wales remains limited.

Knife crime fills part of the gap

If the firearms story largely supports Morgan’s argument, the knife crime story is more complicated and closer to Carlson’s critique that disarming the public does not eliminate deadly violence. England and Wales have seen persistent concern about stabbings, especially among young people, and about robberies and assaults involving blades or other sharp instruments.

Parliamentary researchers tracking knife crime statistics note that offences involving a knife or sharp instrument include a wide range of incidents, from threats and attempted robberies to homicide. One briefing explains that this category captures any crime where a sharp instrument is used to threaten or cause injury, and that such weapons were involved in a significant share of homicides in England and Wales in recent years.

Separate Commons Library analysis summarises how police recorded offences involving knives have fluctuated over the past decade, with periods of sharp increase followed by modest falls. The briefing titled “Knife crime statistics England and Wales” explains that The ONS publishes data on crimes recorded by police involving a knife or sharp instrument and that these figures show thousands of such offences each year. It adds that this meant sharp instruments were a leading method in many serious violent crimes across England and Wales.

Public anxiety has focused particularly on London. Data compiled by Statista shows that the Number of knife crime offences in London rose significantly between 2015 and the late 2010s, before levelling off and then fluctuating again. The same dataset, presented under the heading “London knife crime 2015 to 2025,” records thousands of knife or sharp instrument offences each year in the capital, a pattern that has generated many headlines and political pressure.

Those raw numbers translate into human stories that have dominated local and national news. Media reports have chronicled years in which dozens of teenagers were murdered in London alone, many of them in knife attacks linked to disputes, gangs or social media feuds. One article described 30 teens murdered in a single year as the “bloodiest” in recent memory, with grieving families and community leaders demanding action.

That backdrop is what Piers Morgan had in mind when he told viewers that “Guns aren’t widely available in Britain, but knives are, and we increasingly have a deadly and terrifying reoccurring problem of knife crime.” His point was that while gun restrictions have prevented American style shootings, they have not stopped young men from killing one another with blades on British streets.

How policy has tried to chase the problem

Successive governments have responded to knife crime with a series of legislative and policing measures. One of the most prominent is The Offensive Weapons Act of 2019, which was intended to ban the possession of various dangerous blades and weapons. As one analysis of rising knife attacks explains, The Offensive Weapons Act of 2019 made it a crime to possess many types of knives, including certain curved swords and so called zombie knives, even in private. The law also targeted acid and other corrosive substances used in attacks.

Enforcement has struggled to keep pace with the ingenuity of both criminals and manufacturers. Commentators have pointed out that police often lack the power to confiscate newly designed knives that fall just outside statutory definitions, and that online retailers can still sell blades that are effectively combat weapons with only cosmetic tweaks. A report cited by that same analysis noted that officers sometimes find themselves unable to seize a menacing knife if it does not technically meet the banned criteria, even when common sense suggests it is designed for harm.

The government has continued to tighten rules. A video report on the UK’s knife ban explained that the new restrictions are the first step in a plan to halve knife crime over the next decade. That piece described the problem as “getting worse, not better,” and detailed measures such as banning more categories of large knives and giving police broader powers to search and confiscate. Another report highlighted proposals to outlaw “Rambo style” knives and machetes, aiming to remove weapons that have become grim fixtures in gang disputes.

Despite these efforts, critics argue that law and enforcement often lag behind the street reality. An article on Offensive Weapons Act noted that banning possession in private is only as effective as the capacity to detect and prosecute violations, and that police resources are finite. Others contend that focusing on weapon types risks missing deeper drivers such as school exclusion, social media beefs and the drug trade.

What the latest crime bulletins really show

To understand whether Britain’s experience supports Carlson’s or Morgan’s framing, it helps to look at the broad pattern of serious violence, not just one category of weapon. Official bulletins on Crime in England explain that while police recorded crime is affected by changes in recording practices, it can still give insight into lower volume, higher harm offences that are more likely to come to the attention of authorities.

One bulletin for the year ending March 2025 notes that homicide levels remain below peaks seen in the early 2000s, even after accounting for high profile incidents that can temporarily push numbers up. The same document points out that long term trends in homicide are shaped by multiple factors, including medical advances that keep victims of serious assaults alive, changes in gang dynamics and targeted policing of hot spots.

Another bulletin for the year ending March 2024 includes a section titled “6. Offences involving firearms.” It explains that the recording of offences involving firearms covers a wide range of weapon types, from imitation firearms and air weapons to handguns and shotguns, and that the downward trend in many categories has continued for the year ending March 2024. That suggests that, at least for guns, the combination of tight laws and enforcement has helped keep serious incidents relatively rare.

Knife and sharp instrument offences show a more mixed picture. The Commons Library briefing on “Knife crime statistics England and Wales” summarises ONS data showing that such offences rose sharply from the mid 2010s, then stabilised and in some categories fell slightly. Yet the absolute numbers remain high, with tens of thousands of recorded offences each year, and sharp instruments featuring heavily in homicides and serious assaults.

Third party compilations of Knife Crime Statistics draw on these official figures to highlight that the number of knife enabled homicides has recently fallen from a previous peak, and that in some regions overall knife crime has dipped slightly. One summary notes that the number of knife homicide victims aged under 25 has dropped by a small percentage, down to 204 cases, after earlier spikes. Even so, the same overview stresses that the level of knife harm remains unacceptably high for affected communities.

Social media commentary has amplified those concerns. A clip shared with the caption “Knife Crime Stats Update” cited ONS data to report that there were 55,149 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in England and Wales in the year ending September 2025, compared with the year ending September 2024. The same post contrasted those figures with tough sentencing proposals in Victoria, Australia, where Criminals in Victoria who use knives will face longer time behind bars.

London as a case study in trade offs

London condenses many of these national trends. Data from Statista on knife crime in shows that the number of knife or sharp instrument offences recorded by the police rose from 2015 to a peak around the late 2010s, then fluctuated at a high level through the early 2020s. The same dataset notes that this period also generated many headlines, as high profile stabbings and youth murders dominated front pages.

Over the same years, London has seen a steady decline in firearm incidents. The report on firearm offences falling by two thirds since 2010 attributes that trend to targeted policing, gang disruption and the underlying national framework of strict gun control. Figures published by the ONS, the Office for National Statistics, reflect this overall decrease in firearm offences, both including and excluding air weapons.

The juxtaposition is stark. Londoners live in a city where being shot is statistically unlikely, but where the risk of being robbed or assaulted at knifepoint is significant in some boroughs. That reality fuels both sides of the Carlson Morgan argument. Supporters of Britain’s model say the city has traded one type of risk, frequent gun homicides, for a still serious but less catastrophic pattern of knife violence. Critics respond that for victims and families, a fatal stabbing is no less devastating than a fatal shooting, and that disarming law abiding citizens has not prevented predators from carrying weapons.

Local leaders and campaigners often reject the binary. Many argue that the goal should be to reduce all serious violence, not to accept high levels of knife crime as the price of low gun crime. They call for a mix of enforcement, youth services, mental health support and targeted interventions in schools and estates, rather than relying solely on weapons bans.