Due to the alarming increase in the use of knives to commit crimes in the city, especially by minors, Boston City Councilor Daniel Conley (Hyde Park, Roslindale) filed an amendment yesterday banning all knife sales by street vendors.
A 1997 city ordinance prohibits the sale of knives to minors, but street vendors who are found to be carrying the weapons have avoided prosecution by simply claiming they sell to adults only. Because more than half of the city’s homicides this year have been traced to knives, Conley believes it is necessary to eliminate their cheap sale by roaming vendors, especially those without a hawkers’ and peddlers’ license.
“Councilor Conley feels that only having them available in stores will better enable us to keep a handle on who’s selling them,” said Mariellen Burns, a spokeswoman for the Boston Police Department.
Several recent stabbings committed by minors, especially that of an 11-year-old Springfield boy who was attacked by a classmate in a movie theater, have caused city law enforcement officials to focus more on the growing problem.
“We support anything that makes it more difficult for people, especially juveniles, to obtain weapons,” Burns said. She added “we made five arrests just last night of peddlers who were selling concealed knives.”
Under the new amendment, “transient vendors, peddlers or hawkers … (licensed or unlicensed) are prohibited from selling … dangerous instruments in the city of Boston.” The “dangerous instruments” include knives, ice picks and straight-edged razor blades.
Anyone found in violation could be fined $300 per offense.
Knives have become the weapons of choice following a statewide crackdown on guns, which are more expensive than knives and virtually impossible for minors to obtain, according to police officials.
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