My name is Lisa Petrie. On 2nd September 2025 my son, John McNab, was fatally stabbed on a street in Leith, Edinburgh. He was 22.

We were best pals, we were inseparable at times, and now it feels like I've lost my right arm and my left leg.

No family should ever get that phone call.

I’m determined that John’s death will not be in vain, and one simple change could help stop other families going through this.

Right now in the UK you often need ID and staff checks to buy alcohol, razors or even energy drinks. But in many supermarkets, kitchen knives sit openly on shelves, easy to steal or buy with minimal challenge.

We’re calling on major supermarkets and retailers – including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl and others – to:

• Put all kitchen knives in locked cabinets or behind customer service counters
• Fit security tags to knife packaging so alarms trigger if someone walks out with them
• Only allow knives to be brought to the till by staff, with strict over-18 ID checks

We’re also asking the UK Government and Scottish Government to work with retailers and Trading Standards so secure storage and display of knives becomes the norm, building on existing laws that already restrict knife sales to under-18s.

This won’t end knife crime on its own and it won’t stop online sales. But letting lethal weapons sit unsecured on supermarket shelves is an obvious weak point we can fix now – just as we already do for alcohol and razors. It’s a basic safety measure, not a ban.

Please add your name. I will deliver this petition, and John’s story, to the CEOs of the major supermarkets, the Scottish Government and the Home Office.

The more signatures we have, the harder it is for them to ignore us. I don’t want any other family to live with the pain we do.

Petition started on behalf of Lisa Petrie by her friend Pauline Bowie