The consumer group carried out simple searches for banned offensive weapons on popular online marketplaces, and was easily able to find items including zombie and flick knives, knuckle dusters, swords and batons. It said some of the products were selling for as little as 49p.
The Offensive Weapons Act 2019 bans the sale of these weapons in the UK and they are also banned for personal ownership, even in a private home.
Searching on Amazon, Which? found more than a dozen listings for friction lock batons, which are also banned offensive weapons, masquerading as ‘trekking poles.
Some of the listings used special characters, such as ‘bătõň’, in the title or only used the word baton in the artwork – presumably to avoid detection by Amazon. Some of the images on the listings indicated that they could be used for self-defence and fighting.
On eBay, a variety of illegal swords, zombie knives, and knuckle dusters were found for sale, including a 23-inch steel...