B.C. calls on Ottawa to restrict sale of machetes in bid to curb street crime

British Columbia’s attorney general is calling on the federal government to regulate and restrict the sale of machetes as a response to street crime.

Niki Sharma has penned a letter to Ottawa, asking her federal counterpart to consider classifying machetes as restricted weapons, as the UK does, which would allow police to seize and destroy them.

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Sharma says machetes have no legitimate use on modern city streets but are cheap and easy to access without restrictions.

The move follows a number of recent machete attacks on people and animals.

In Vancouver, a man’s hand was severed earlier this month during a random attack. While police haven’t confirmed the weapon used in that attack, Premier David Eby referenced it when discussing machete restrictions on Sunday.

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Machete attacks in the Downtown Eastside and downtown Vancouver in 2022 and in 2020 also left multiple people injured, and earlier this year a Vancouver Island man said someone used a machete to slash his dog.

“These are very significant impact weapons. You can actually take a limb off if you know how to use one, just like you can take a limb off a tree,” said Larry Farris, who owns Skyview Outdoors in Surrey.

“It’s a weapon that can kill you just as easily as a gun can.”

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Farris said machetes can be legitimate tools, particularly for backcountry explorers or for landscaping work, but should not be carried around in public.

He said his store only sells about four of them per month, and said he’d support regulating them like bear spray.

Farris said age restrictions and restrictions on blade sizes would be a good starting point.

“As few as we sell, it’s not going to affect our business from a commercial perspective,” he said.

“If it would help eliminate one attack, then I would say certainly it’s not a bad idea.”

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Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim also indicated support for the initiative.

“Every little bit helps, and any time you can take dangerous weapons off the street it’s a good thing,” he said Sunday.

“We are trying to make our streets safer, so if there is anything we can do, any ideas we can replicate from different jurisdictions where they are having success, I think that’s a great thing.”

It is already illegal to use any knife or weapon in a threatening way, to carry most knives or any weapons in public without a “good reason” and to sell most knives or any weapons to anyone under the age of 18.

Global News is seeking comment from the federal Ministry of Justice.