knife control response to bondi junction westfield massacre
RHEA PORTER
APRIL 27, 2024
Three people of Asian descent were among the six victims stabbed to death in the Bondi Junction Massacre on April 13.
Asian Australians are now speaking out for stronger knife control laws in the wake of this tragedy.
Asian Aussies Against Knife Wound Attacks (AAAKWA) Founder Mrs Mee So Sooki, who formed the lobby group on April 14, 2024, says her response is not merely a knee-jerk reaction, but rather a well-considered and essential response to an endemic societal concern.
Mrs Sooki says there is precedent in Australian legislation to respond with a swift, strong and severe response following such a bloody and gruesome use of weaponry.
“Following the Port Arthur massacre in April 1996, the Howard government rightly established heavy restrictions against the ownership of automatic and semi-automatic weapons,” Mrs Sooki says. “I want to know what the Albanese government is going to do in 2024?” Mrs Sooki says she has formed AAAKWA as a response to what she calls Australia’s “indecent love affair” with the knife. She points to the fact that Asian cultures have used chopsticks at the dinner table “for numerous millennia” as a potential road map for knife reform in Australia. “What could be easier or more convenient for eating tiny, thin, round and smooth pieces of rice than two long wooden sticks? What could be easier for grabbing at a long, wet, slippery noodle than two pieces of wood which have to be held in the same hand? Chopsticks are so convenient and versatile,” explains Mrs Sooki. “As we know, most Asians are known for being well-fed, big eaters who are commonly overweight precisely because it is just so easy and simple to eat our delicious food so fast and without any awkwardness when using chopsticks.” The AAAKWA Founder IN Australia (FINA) Mrs Sooki says Australia needs to “cut its cords from the Union Jack flag and its binding threads”. “The trouble is that Aussies, of whom many have their heritage from Great Britain and continental Europe, have this life-long, generational commitment to the mighty knife and regard it is an essential tool in their meal consumption. It's always ‘slice this’, ‘dice that’, ‘carve this way’ and ‘chop that way’, as if they could not consume their meals without their precious knives,” the AAAKWAFINA says. “I see parents teaching children as young as two or three to use a knife and even chastising their kids when they want to use their fingers to eat instead. It’s so hypocritical! On the one hand, toddlers are told to pass scissors by the handle while holding the blade, then they are literally putting these sharp objects into the hands of their children, telling them to cut at things, and then they get shocked when someone is stabbed. It is pure cultural myopia. It’s got to stop.” AAAKWAFINA Sooki admits she is well aware of the common rebuttals of Australia’s knife lobbyists, or she calls them, ‘Big Carver’. “Yes, they will claim, ‘Knives do not kill people – people do!’. But how many chopstick related massacres can you think of throughout history?” asks Sooki, rhetorically – because when this journalist tried to answer the question, she just kept talking. “Sure, Chairman Mao Zedong had a five-year plan to purge the 'rightists' from the Chinese Communist Party in the late 1950s by using chopsticks as weapons, but most of that time was spent whittling away at pieces of bamboo while Mao's senior officials tried relocating the Great Wall of China in the world's slowest attempt at gerrymandering. But I digress!” AAAKWAFINA Sooki says. “The point is…” Sooki pauses dramatically, “The point! Of a chopstick! See…” she says, pressing the chopstick’s tip against her forefinger, “…It’s not that sharp!” she shouts with the confidence of a newly enthroned empress. “The point of a knife, however, very sharp – and that's the point! The point is dangerous and deadly!” AAAKWAFINA Sooki says she still harbours memories of knife related trauma as an Asian Australian teenager, new to the country as a legal immigrant in the 1980s. “Personally, I have never felt safe eating at a Sizzler's, for example – and not just because of people who lean under the sneeze guard to get their food at the salad bar. “When someone orders a steak, it comes with a free tool of murder to be used for the duration of the meal. No license required to use it, no background checks via the police database for any prior convictions, not even a signed reference from a JP or Catholic Priest. “They simply say, ‘Here is your juicy Wagyu and here is a serrated Victorinox to go with it.’ Then the waitress walks away without any fear for her safety or that of those around her. “Frankly, I would rather take my chances with some sneezed-on seafood extender salad. In fact, I would rather eat the wings of the Wuhan Bat from the Wet Market down the street from where my grandparents grew up, than sit back to back with a steak knife-wielding patron. “At least they have a vaccine for COVID now. Nothing can inoculate against a disembowelment or arterial spray from a sliced carotid. “But you know what surprises me most about this incident? That it hasn't happened sooner. But again, I blame industry - Big Utensil - and its connection to British Imperialism.
"Every Shopping Centre has a little outpost - King of Knives! - there is even one at Bondi Junction Westfield. “King Charles may not be collecting taxes from us anymore, even though his head is now on our coins, but he is still making sure that these weapons of Mass Dissection can easily make their ways, boxes of six at a time, into your household kitchens and suburban bistros. “Even kids' picnic playsets will have plastic imitations of these murder weapons, and in these playsets you can always just velcro the two halves of apple or fish back together over and over again after you cut them again and again. This irresponsible and fantasy-driven toy production creates a false expectation around the effects of knife violence, as if any damage done by a knife can simply be put together again. “But as we all know, a stabbed-to-death human is like Humpty Dumpty – one day they will become the tragic inspiration for a really catchy nursery rhyme that will be passed down for generations and sung by children with glee while the original horrific meaning is long forgotten.”
"Every Shopping Centre has a little outpost - King of Knives! - there is even one at Bondi Junction Westfield. “King Charles may not be collecting taxes from us anymore, even though his head is now on our coins, but he is still making sure that these weapons of Mass Dissection can easily make their ways, boxes of six at a time, into your household kitchens and suburban bistros. “Even kids' picnic playsets will have plastic imitations of these murder weapons, and in these playsets you can always just velcro the two halves of apple or fish back together over and over again after you cut them again and again. This irresponsible and fantasy-driven toy production creates a false expectation around the effects of knife violence, as if any damage done by a knife can simply be put together again. “But as we all know, a stabbed-to-death human is like Humpty Dumpty – one day they will become the tragic inspiration for a really catchy nursery rhyme that will be passed down for generations and sung by children with glee while the original horrific meaning is long forgotten.”
.jpg "image title")
.jpg "image title")
