A mother whose son was stabbed to death with a ninja sword has welcomed new figures released by the government regarding weapons being dropped off in amnesty bins across the country over the past year.
Ronan Kanda, 16, was murdered close to his home in Wolverhampton in 2022 in a case of mistaken identity.
Pooja Kanda has since campaigned for Ronan’s Law, which included a ban on ninja swords – weapons with a primary straight cutting edge between 14 and 24 inches long, and a tanto or reverse tanto-style point.
She said: “I lost my 16-year-old son, Ronan, in a mistaken-identity knife attack. He paid the ultimate price because someone else chose to carry a knife.
“There are no winners in knife crime.
open image in gallery“As we mark one year since the introduction of Ronan’s Law, this surrender scheme is another important step in preventing dangerous weapons from causing further harm.
“It provides young people, and anyone else carrying a dangerous weapon, with a safe and anonymous opportunity to surrender it.”
More than 14,500 weapons, including zombie-style knives, kitchen knives, and machetes, have been handed into government-backed amnesty bins since July last year, the Home Office said.
Policing minister Sarah Jones said that “each time a knife is surrendered, communities around the country are made that little bit safer”.
The government-backed scheme initially established 37 surrender bins across London, Greater Manchester, and the West Midlands.
open image in galleryEight new bins have since been launched in South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, including Barnsley, Sheffield, Leeds, and Wakefield, bringing the total to 45.
Ms Jones said: “Every dangerous weapon that has been surrendered so far is a weapon off our streets and a community made that little bit safer.
“That’s why we’re going further and making it easier for more people in more places to do the right thing and hand over their knives.
“Knife crime is down by 11% since the general election but we will not stop until we meet our commitment of halving knife crime in a decade.”
Figures from the Home Office show overall knife crime is down 11% since the poll in July 2024, with knife-enabled robberies down by 16%.
Knife-linked homicides have fallen by 26%.
In addition to the static surrender bins, managed by the charity Word 4 Weapons, a further 783 weapons were handed in at a mobile surrender van run by the organisation Fazamnesty.
Both the bins and the van are operated on a “no questions asked” basis so people can hand over knives without fear of the consequences.