National service for knife carriers (but not in the armed forces?)

I was thinking about the idea of national service at the start of the weekend and it occurred to me it would be a good idea for this to happen... but some kind of service that is non-armed forces. Imagine loads of angry youths disarmed and put to use to serve the public, instead of their own warped priorities.

Couple of pointers from the Sunday Times today:

Home Office statistics show a crime with knives happens every four minutes.

About a third of murders are committed with knives - a figure barely changed for decades. But the age of people carrying and using them has come down from 19-25 into mid-teens.

From surveys, three main reasons hoodlums carry blades:

• For crime
• For protection (85% say this)
  
• Have to do it to belong to a gang

And the police - apparently all they'll be able to do is:

• visible presence
• education
• consistent response

Read more from the Sunday Times interview with UK knife czar Alf Hitchcock.

Important then that society unites against knife carriers and makes an impression to drive down knife crime statistics to much safer levels, in tandem with police action. Come on, let's go do it...