There is an ongoing political discussion (maybe they passed a law already, not sure) about banning the public carrying of various types of knives. I had the impression that the discussion came out of nowhere and for no apparent reason, but maybe I was wrong.
It's a stupid debate that completely misses the point. Knives are already fairly tightly regulated in Germany. Even the ones you can carry legally with up to 12 cm blades you wouldn't be able to carry without issues in areas like the city or whatever. So reducing that length is not going to do anything but make it even harder for those who legitimately can or even have to carry knives around. People who intend to use them for illegal acts will just continue to do so.
The stupidest thing about this is, that I don't think any law prohibiting the carrying of knives could stop a terrorist from doing something like this and a general ban of knives is not possible.
Funny, people say the same exact things about guns.
Sounds like you need federal background checks for knives, bans on certain lengths, bans on what establishments you can carry it in, permits required to carry them "concealed" (i.e in your pocket) requiring you to show "proper cause," bans on whether or not they can be automatic, and bans on the specific blade shape (probably drop or spear point) used in these murders, and don't forget to serialize and register each and every knife while you're there and require knife sharpeners to become federally licensed and log your knives in their books if they'll be performing maintenance on them.
Catch up Germany, knives are a tool designed for cutting and stabbing, not everyone should have the right to use them!
Knives aren't required for food prep either for most people, most people don't hunt they buy their food at a store, we can have stores cut it up for people and have them be regulated since they work with dangerous items. Maybe butter knives, fine, I can see how people need to spread stuff, but assault knives should definitely be banned. Nobody needs a knife longer than 8cm for food. And besides as long as you can pass a background check you can have the knives in your home to cut food anyway, why would you need a knife while you're not having a meal? It's irresponsible and it's time we do something about it, we need common sense knife control!
Except, unlike guns, kitchen knives are gonna keep existing no matter what. The UK has strict knives laws, yet they have a big problem with knife attacks, the overwhelming majority of which use kitchen knives
The weapons law from 2014 already banned knives at gatherings. Like you would be okay to buy one at a shop and take it home, but not allowed to bring it to a festival or so. It's a complicated law with addendums and attachments and it makes distinctions of types of knives, like non-pointy rescue knives for cutting seatbelts would still be allowed while butterfly knives or switchblades are totally forbidden.
There are already German federal laws banning public carrying of knives in many areas, but there's some exceptions if you have it in a locked container for people who need to bring knives for work.