Collecting banned?

[Sim G]

The trouble these days is that the authorities have no interest in such people until they've really gone off the deep end and killed people, turned amateur jihadist suicide bomber or whatever. There are precious few support resources anymore, a mere fraction of the charities there used to be, and extended families that supported relatives fallen (or who'd thrown themselves into) hard times are much rarer than they used to be.

That's because a few short decades ago we had "institutions" where those that posed a risk could be admitted to and assessed. They've all gone in the name of "inhumane" and we have a society where teenage children can access websites that encourage them to kill themselves. And we allow and even celebrate when people surgically mutilate themselves because they "identify" with being a cat or a lizard!

Society is now awash with mental health "patients" where it's been put upon the police to act as social or mental health workers. And the fact is, the police are not trained for such and people will only be removed from society when they commit an act and the law allows that removal....

But hey, these are enlightened times!

[artiglio]

A year or so back there was a piece in my local paper about policing in the area, one of the points made was that around 50% of incidents the police attended had mental health as a factor and that as soon as this element was identified it tied up even more police resources for even longer, usually due to the time it took to contact the relevant agencies and wait for them to arrive/ respond.
An additional task for which the police have never been specifically funded or trained for.

[Chuck]

Sim:

As bambam says, if you owned a flick knife prior to 1959, you could keep it at home. The Offensive Weapons Act 2019 amended the definition of flick knife and will now encompass assisted openers. I’ll check, but I think possession offence is extended to a private place. So illegal to even own them at home!

What's the definition of "assisted opening"? Is it a spring of some sort??

[Racalman]

This chap was actually blowing stuff up for his own amusement, apparently. I read it in The Times this morning.
He had a fascination for making things go bang and was in the habit of blowing up water melons and old laptops etc. The sort of thing I don't find particularly shocking - as kids we used to do the same kind of dangerous but fun crap. In our current times, however ...

Same here. When I was a kid I could buy everything needed to make a substantial bang from our village chemist.

[1066]

You can make a fair old whoomp with a cardboard box and a bit of butane and a sparkler. (So I've heard)

[Pete]

Not to mention missiles powered by powdered Swan Vesta heads.............

Pete

[kevinww]

Or mortar bombs made by dropping soda siphon bulbs down a tube with a nail in the bottom to puncture the cap, or alternatively if you wanted a horizontal launch put the bulb in the tube and place in a fire, cap was always weakest point and blew first.

[FredB]

It used to be illegal to make gunpowder for your own use. I believe that this is no longer the case.
Fred

[Dark Skies]

My dad used to hoard aluminium cigar tubes. He used to put drill bits in them.
With a cork and ... some other stuff ... they were found to be tailor made for loud mischief.:)

[Racalman]

They were happy days, when you could experiment innocently in your back garden without fear of being accused of nefarious activities.

My brother and I used to bury our larger devices (made with ingredients from the chemist) and set them off with a car battery and fuse wire.

Ground up solid fuel pellets for Jetex rocket motors (remember those?) made a good propellant for small cannons.

My chemistry teacher held a sale of old school books, and for the sum of one shilling I purchased a 1930s text book that described how to make every type of explosive known to man.

I'm amazed I still have all my fingers