"It's a huge problem": Growing calls to ban sale of knives to teens

The parents of murdered Gold Coast teen Jack Beasley have joined calls to limit the sale of knives to teens, arguing it is way overdue.

Queensland is currently one of the only states with no restrictions on who can buy knives, with the weapons freely available in supermarkets and department stores.

The move comes after a spate of recent knife crime involving teens including the alleged stabbing of a pizza delivery driver in Ipswich on the weekend and the alleged stabbing of a man in Noosa.

Jack’s father Brett says the major retailers need to do better.

“It is a huge problem with these young kids buying these knives and I’ve already called out the major shopping chains myself to call on them to lock their knives away,” Brett told Hot Tomato’s Galey & Emily Jade.

“I mean, you can’t go to Bunnings and buy a can of spray paint for God’s sake. It’s all locked in a cabinet.

“You can walk into these major shopping chains and you can buy a bloody great knife just hanging on the shelf. So, we need to take away the temptation and I think we should start with them.”

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll has been tasked with researching the plan and is expected to report back to the government soon.

“I am doing a piece of work to look at what other states are doing in terms of restricting the sale of knives. In some states, you can’t purchase a knife if you’re under 16. In other states, under 18,” Commissioner Carroll told Nine.

“If this restricts more knives being out in the street, this is definitely something that we will look at. But we’re throwing everything at this at the moment.”

Hundreds turned out on the Gold Coast on Sunday for the 4th annual Ride for Jack.

Motorcyclists rode from Helensvale to Oxenford, in honour of the teen who was fatally stabbed in Surfers Paradise in 2019.

Brett says it was by far their biggest one yet.

“It was so good. It was overwhelming. We had nearly 100 I think we had about 150 bikes there and look, it was so overwhelming.

“We had about 250 people there. We had a fantastic day. The weather was great.

“The Queensland Police Service done an absolute fantastic job in getting us all going and stopping the traffic for us and all in all it was a beautiful day.”