[TheForge] banning samurai swords (in england)

[Ben Barrett]

Just saw this via OddlyEnough/reuters:
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2007-12-14T051324Z_01_N13193275_RTRUKOC_0_US-SWORDS.xml

clip from beginning of article:
LONDON (Reuters) - The government said Wednesday it would ban the sale
of samurai swords because the weapons had been used in a number of
serious, high-profile attacks.
The Home Office said the swords would be added to the Offensive
Weapons Order from April next year, meaning they could not be
imported, sold or hired.
However collectors of genuine Japanese swords and those used by
martial arts enthusiasts would be exempt from the ban.

gah!!!  now hollywood will have to glorfy other ancient weapons like
the atl-atl and slingshot...

~ben