MSPs were warned yesterday they will have "blood on their hands" if they fail to change the law over knife crime.
A summit in Holyrood heard the stark warning from John Muir, 69, the campaigning father of Damian Muir, who was murdered 18 months ago.
He warned of many more deaths if MSPs fail to introduce mandatory prison sentences for people carrying knives
in Scotland.
The summit was called by Holyrood's petitions committee after Mr Muir brought his Damian's Law petition of 16,000 signatures to the parliament.
It included victims of knife attacks, community groups, politicians including Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing, police, legal experts and social service professionals.
However, there was strong disagreement over the way forward, with two camps emerging in the debate.
The split fell between those who wanted stronger prison sentences and those who believed prisons do not work.
Mr Ewing said the Scottish Government favoured bringing in a presumption of prison sentences, but not mandatory ones, and for the issue to be looked at by a new sentencing council.
However, he was left disappointed by the meeting and suggested it had been hijacked by people with a liberal "soft touch" agenda, whom he branded "the limp handshake brigade".
He said: "You had an opportunity to change Scotland for the better. This was an opportunity overlooked. It disappoints me and I can see the disappointment in a number of people of here."
The summit heard that Scotland has the worst knife crime statistics in the UK, three and a half times more than south of the Border and, on average, surgeons in Glasgow deal with a facial injury every six hours.
But many of the professionals involved in the discussions came out against mandatory sentences.
Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, of the police violence reduction unit, said: "I've been a cop for 34 years. If I thought locking people up the first time they were carrying a knife and giving them four years in the jail would work I'd be your man."
But DCS Carnochan argued that mandatory sentences had not worked when they were used against razor gangs in Glasgow in the 1930s and said he believed they would not work now.
However, the call for tough minimum sentences was backed by both Labour and the Conservatives.
The summit was over-shadowed by the non-show of Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who had decided to attend a series of Burns suppers in Canada.
The SNP insisted that Mr Ewing is the minister responsible for knife crime, but Conservative research has shown that Mr MacAskill has answered 68 per cent of the questions on knife crime and been the minister quoted in the only two press releases on the issue.
Meanwhile, Labour has produced a leaflet Mr MacAskill put out in his Edinburgh East constituency in which he said that knife crime is not a problem in the East of Scotland. But they have also published the results of a freedom of information request which shows there has been on average one knife attack a day in the Lothians.
Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker said: "Kenny MacAskill's non-appearance at the knife summit was one thing, but his absolutely complacency on knife crime outside of the west of Scotland is horrifying."
Mr Ewing described the attacks on his colleague as "pathetic".
Case Study 1: The killing behind Damian's LawTHE campaign to change the law on knife crime was launched by John Muir after his son, Damian, was murdered 18 months ago.
The 34-year-old was stabbed eight times on 14 July, 2007, in a random attack as he returned from a football club presentation in Greenock.
His killer, Barry Gavin, 21, who was on bail at the time of the killing and had two previous convictions for knife crime, was jailed for a minimum of 15 years.
Gavin stabbed his victim eight times so hard that the blade of his knife broke. Mr Muir, 69, raised a petition to introduce a new "Damian's Law". The idea is that anybody convicted of just carrying, not necessarily using, a knife in public would receive a mandatory jail sentence.
Case Study 2: Attack ended academic career THE horrors of knife attacks were graphically described yesterday by a 19-year-old victim.
Mark Paterson was set upon in Easterhouse just 70 yards from his home, three months ago.
He was stabbed twice in the arm and once in the chest before knocking his attacker to the ground. He fled, but his attacker caught up and stabbed him in the left arm, before Mr Paterson reached his home.
The assailant was not convicted because Mr Paterson was the only witness.
The events have shattered Mr Paterson's life. He gave up his degree in maths and astrophysics and plans to move into the centre of Glasgow away from his family home.
The full article contains 820 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
