So National’s Simon Power has ordered a review of the law surrounding violent crime and knives and there’s a good chance possession will be criminalised – in the same discretionary sense that, say, smacking is. Meanwhile ACT’s David Garrett is cheering them on from the sidelines:

“It’s too easy for would-be offenders to pick up a knife without thinking of the consequences. We need to send a message that knife possession is not acceptable in our society and harsher penalties will do this.”

I don’t have much more to add – a review is a review is a review, and it’s obvious that National and ACT lean towards a fairly authoritarian, retributive model of the justice system – but it is interesting that this wasn’t brought up much, much earlier.

Say, oh, January 2008?