Up to 20 Injured in Apparent Mass Stabbing at Pittsburgh Area High School. Time for Knife Control?

Suspect in custody

Up to 20 people were injured in "multiple stabbings" at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh Action News 4 reports:

"There is an actor in custody. Murrysville police are in the process of interviewing him," said Dan Stevens, the county's deputy emergency management coordinator.

The suspect has not been publicly identified yet.

The stabbings happened in numerous classrooms throughout the building before classes had begun for the day, Stevens said.

Not all 20 of the injured people were actually stabbed, Stevens said. Some of the injuries were described as cuts and scrapes. CNN is also regularly updating here.

Authorities say they've arrested an undientified male sophomore some classmates describe as "shy."

The federal government has been encouraging public schools to be gun-free zones since the early 1990s, when it tied that requirement to federal funding. In Pennsylvania, it's a misdemeanor to bring a knife onto school property; students who do so can end up in alternative education.

Earlier this week, A. Barton Hinkle highlighted the emerging knife rights movement and an eponymous civil rights organization:

Last month Knife Rights won a big (for them) victory when Tennessee repealed a law prohibiting switchblades. Tennessee followed the lead of Alaska, which legalized them in 2013. Knife Rights was behind both efforts.

You wouldn't think the country has much need for a group like Knife Rights. After all, there is no countervailing force trying to ban knives in America: No Knife Control Inc. or Center for the Study of Knife Policy and Research. There have been no Million Mom Marches for knife control, no congressional efforts to ban big blades.

On the other hand, a few years ago nobody would have expected New York to ban the Big Gulp, either. Now look.