Youth campaigner Les Twentyman has called for the return of an effective weapons amnesty program in Sunshine.
Mr Twentyman said that after four stabbings in Brimbank in less than a month, the award-winning ‘Exchange a knife, save a Life’ program – where, on average, a weapon was handed in every two minutes over a two-hour period – should be brought back. “It was a way of saying, we’re not going to accept our kids being armed,” he said.
The past month has seen the stabbing death of a mother on April 17, a stabbing at Sunshine railway station on April 25, and a fatal stabbing in St Albans last Monday following a home invasion.
A 15-year-old St Albans boy was also stabbed numerous times following a brawl in a McDonald’s car park in Delahey on the night of Saturday, May 3. The offender is still unknown to police.
“It’s [knife crime] a major issue,” Mr Twentyman said. “We need another weapon exchange like in [July] 2006 at Sunshine station. We need to change the culture. This is a national crisis.”
Mr Twentyman said harsher penalties did not work. “Penalties have been increased and there’s been no difference [in behaviour]. A lot of it is tied into gangs and unemployment and drug culture, and sadly, it’s also guns.”
Brimbank’s Inspector Chris Gilbert did not reject the idea of another amnesty but said police were investigating the recent use of deadly weapons. “We are reviewing some of the incidents … does it point to a wider issue?”
