Last night at the fair in Zaandam, the police confiscated knives that were handed out as prizes. Mayor Jan Hamming of the municipality of Zaanstad believes that this sends the wrong signal. “Weapons are not a prize!”
“The fair is a place for fun. Where children walk around with cotton candy and you get an adrenaline rush in attractions. Unfortunately, the fair is also a place where you can win weapons, or fake weapons. I think we should not want that together”, he writes on Facebook.
According to the mayor, the showmen understood why the knives had to be returned and this went without any problems. “We shouldn’t think it’s normal to be able to win guns in games for kids, whether they’re real knives or fake firearms.”
Fight against gun ownership
Possession and use of dangerous objects, and especially the possession of knives among young people, is a major problem in Zaanstad. That’s how there were beginnings last year within five days four serious incidents, in which young people attacked each other with knives.
Mayor Hamming has been fighting gun ownership in Zaanstad for some time, writes NH News. For example, since 2018 the police have been allowed to carry out preventive searches in certain areas of the city and there are mobile detection gates in the city. Ever since October 26 last year There is also a knife ban in the municipality.
The mayor also called on retail chains to stop selling knives to children. Xenos, HEMA and IKEA, among others gave ear to the call.
The mayor writes that from now on no more weapons or fake weapons will be found at the fair in Zaanstad. “We must raise, not lower, the threshold for our youth.” Hamming states that all fairground operators in the Netherlands must take responsibility.
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