The problem has become so prevalent that magistrates are regularly lecturing offenders about the perils of carrying knives and lawyers openly scolding their own clients in court.

Four people have died from knife stabbings on the Gold Coast in the past 15 months – including Parkwood teen Jack Beasley in Surfers Paradise in December 2019 – and countless others have been wounded in separate incidents. The fatal cases are still before the courts.

Legal professionals said they had noticed a steep increase in the number of the knife-related cases. However, those using the weapons in scuffles and attacks came from different facets of society – and those on the frontline cannot agree on why.

“It’s not just kids getting around with knives,” said Dave Garratt, of Howden Saggers Lawyers.

“And it’s not just kids from lower socio-economic upbringings. People from all walks of life – including adult professionals – have been caught with a knife in their possession with no reasonable excuse.

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“It’s alarming concerning just how many people have a knife going around their day-to-day business. People are carrying around knives in handbags and cars and things like that.”

Carrying a knife in a public place without a reasonable excuse is a criminal offence and can lead to a maximum of one year in prison.

A reasonable excuse includes things like going fishing, for work purposes, or eating.

Carrying a knife for self-defence is not a reasonable excuse.

The problem is not just aligned to the Gold Coast. The UK experienced a 77 per cent increase in homicides committed with knives by under-18s between 2016 and 2018, and a 93 per cent jump in the number of under-16s admitted to hospital due to knife attacks from 2012 to 2018.

The 285 knife-related deaths recorded in the year ending March 2018 was the highest number since the Home Office Homicide Index began more than 70 years ago.

In July 2019, US President Donald Trump called London Mayor Sadiq Khan a “national disgrace” after two teenagers were stabbed within ten minutes of each other.

Earlier, he told a National Rifle Association convention: “That’s right, they don’t have guns. They have knives. Knives, knives, knives.”

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In truth, the number of stabbings in America is comparable to the UK, with 0.49 stabbing deaths for every 100,000 people in 2017. The UK average was 0.48.

In Queensland, the use of knives in homicides, manslaughter, assault and domestic violence incidents rose 40 per cent in five years from 17,308 in the 2014-15 financial year to 24,687.

Academics in Europe blamed toxic environments for children, created by austerity; children and young people afraid of becoming victims; that children and young people don’t trust the authorities to protect them; and also gangs, drill music - a style that has dark, violent and nihilistic lyrics - and social media.

They felt more resources needed to be put into helping children and young teens and not necessarily giving police a bigger stick.

Gold Coast’s Potts Lawyers director Bill Potts said young people were brought up on video games and movies featuring “cartoon violence” and “glorified” violent acts.

“We have to realise that knives can kill and harm,” he said. “These are not weapons of self-defence.”

One lawyer told the Bulletin that a knife was allegedly used in five of the seven murder cases he is working on.

Another Gold Coast lawyer, Michael Gatenby said he had noticed an increase in the number of people charged with carrying knives in the past 12 months.

“It’s not just the young males who are being caught up, women also,” the director of Gatenby Criminal Lawyers said.

“I tend to think it is part of the culture and they are trying replicate that American subculture and the eshay culture.”

Mr Gatenby said it was not the usual “gangster types” that were carrying knives for protection.

“I don’t think people who carry knives understand the damage they can do.”

Mr Gatenby said a knife could turn a relatively benign incident fatal.

Brett and Belinda Beasley set up the Jack Beasley Foundation in honour of their son and to fight knife violence.

Jack died just after 7pm on a Friday when walking through Surfers Paradise with a friend.

Five teens – now aged 18, 17, 16, 17 and 19 – have been charged with murder and acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm.

They will face a hearing at the end of March. Only one teen is deemed an adult in the court’s eyes, but his name has been suppressed.

The Beasley family do not know the accused killer’s names, or what they look like.

In December, Belinda Beasley told the Bulletin: “So many kids carry knives that it is the back of your mind. Whereas (prior to Jack’s death) it was never in the back of my mind, ever.”

MAGISTRATES ON KNIFE CRIME: “INSANITY AND FOOLISHNESS”

An uptick in the number of knife-related crimes going through the Southport Magistrates Court has magistrates and criminal defence lawyers worried more people could be killed.

Magistrates have been repeatedly reprimanding and lecturing people for carrying a knife, warning the practice could be deadly.

Twice already this year magistrates in Southport Magistrates Court have lectured knife-wielding offenders.

On Friday, Magistrate Michelle Dooley told one man being sentenced for multiple charges, including possessing a knife: “You must not under any circumstances carry a knife.”

A day earlier Magistrate Kerry Magee told a teenager accused of carrying a knife that it was “always bad to be carrying a knife”.

“It is extremely disturbing that young people go around arming themselves with knives,” Magistrate Magee said.

Last month, Magistrate Kathleen Payne gave Lachlan Jason Selwood-­Debelak a 10-minute lecture when he was sentenced for pulling a knife during a fight.

She described the acts as “insanity and foolishness”.

“You are very lucky you are not charged with murder because there are a lot of young men, 19 years old in jail waiting for a murder trial because of exactly the same circumstance that you found yourself in,” Magistrate Payne told him.

Selwood-­Debelak pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm whilst armed and in company.

Magistrate Payne sentenced Selwood-Debelak to 18 months’ probation and ordered he complete 40 hours of community service. He must also pay the victim $2000 in compensation. No conviction was recorded.

In November last year experienced defence lawyer Jason Jacobson, of Jacobson Mahony Lawyers, gave his own client Jac Michael Webb a scolding during the court case.

“The message needs to get out there and let people like my client know that terrible things can happen and much worse injuries can happen,” he said.

Mr Jacobson said the “courts are sick and tired of young people walking around with knives”.

Webb, 18, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm while armed. He was sentenced to six months in prison with immediate parole.

lea.emery@news.com.au