From
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN1319327520071213?
feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=22&sp=true


I guess the cheap, smaller versions are called "Samurai Night
Specials?"


LONDON (Reuters) - The government said Wednesday it would ban the
sale of samurai swords because the weapons had been used in a number
of serious, high-profile attacks.

The Home Office said the swords would be added to the Offensive
Weapons Order from April next year, meaning they could not be
imported, sold or hired.

However collectors of genuine Japanese swords and those used by
martial arts enthusiasts would be exempt from the ban.

"In the wrong hands, samurai swords are dangerous weapons," Home
Office Minister Vernon Coaker said.

"We recognize it is the cheap, easily available samurai swords which
are being used in crime and not the genuine more expensive samurai
swords which are of interest to collectors and martial arts
enthusiasts."

The Association of Chief Police Officers said the swords were not a
common weapon but they had been used in a number of significant
incidents.

In 2000, Robert Ashman murdered a Liberal Democrat councilor at the
offices of Cheltenham MP Nigel Jones, who was also seriously hurt in
the attack.

A year earlier, Eden Strang seriously wounded 11 people when he went
on the rampage with a samurai sword at a Roman Catholic Church near
his home in Thornton Heath, south London.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Tim Castle)