Dear All,

The Scottish executive has recently announced its proposals towards
establishing new laws in Scotland, which include a ban on the sale of
swords. Exemptions are included for religious, cultural and sporting
reasons, yet this is despite a public consultation on the subject
confirming that most respondees were entirely against a ban on the
sale of swords.

The original story can be found at -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/4788881.stm

Rational explanations democratically presented to the Scottish
Parliament have yet to be heeded - that a licencing scheme for
manufacturers and retailers will have no impact upon street crime,
this being the supposed reasoning for such proposals and laws being
pushed through.

Such schemes will only incur costs and additional paperwork for
manufacturers and retailers in Scotland while anyone wishing to
circumvent the new `tough laws` can simply order online or by mail order.

To this day, the Executive has yet to back up its assertions that
swords present a great threat to the Scottish public with any hard
facts or figures.
This means that we are in danger of seeing the Scottish Executive
press ahead with proposals and implementation of new laws based
entirely upon supposition and their own media fearmongering campaign.
This heralds a very dangerous precedent for any new laws being
established in Scotland and cannot be allowed to happen.

The facts are that physical attacks with swords in Scotland are of
course extremely few and far between, forming considerably less than
1% of all attacks with ANY edged weapons.

The Executive would also have us believe that `non-domestic knives`
are a great threat and problem, and is presently proposing a licencing
scheme for the sale of these in Scotland. Again, NO hard facts or
figures have been presented to prove that any such danger exists.

The facts are that most knife attacks in Scotland are carried out with
DOMESTIC knives, these being the cheapest, most easily available and
concealable of all blades available on the street today.
The Executive has yet to back up its assertions with any facts and
prefers to hide behind a smokescreen of scaremongering in the hope
that the Scottish public shall simply follow in deference to its voice
of `authority`.

The Save Our Swords petition was handed in to the Scottish Parliament
last year with over 2000 signatures in total. At that time, the
petition was open only to Scottish residents. Now, we open the
campaign to all and any interested individuals worldwide who wish to
support our cause.

We would like to collect as many more names and comments as possible
in response to the present threat to Scottish culture in seeing swords
disappear from our High Street retailers. If the Parliament gets it
way, any tourist visiting Scotland would not be able to purchase a
sword as a symbolic souvenir of our cultural nation.
Let us not allow this to happen.

This petition is open to all and shall be resubmitted to the Scottish
Parliament with a greater voice and an extensive and detailed covering
letter addressing our most recent concerns.
If you have not already added your name and comments (sensible ones
only please, aggressive or inappropriate comments shall be removed),
then please do so by following the online petition link below. If you
have already added your name, please forward this to as many
interested parties that you may know.

http://www.petitiononline.com/Swords/petition.html

The time to act is now. Petition totals shall be collated for
resubmission at the end of September 2006.

Your time, concerns and contributions are most appreciated and our
thanks in advance.

Yours Very Truly,

Paul Macdonald,
Save Our Swords Campaign,
Macdonald Armouries,
Macdonald Academy of Arms.