[lit-ideas] Re: Didn't I tell you so?

Paul Stone wrote:

I'd still rather be a victim of a violent crime than of murder any day. What is, with a knife or fists, a violent, but often survivable assault, turns into a murder when guns are readily available and accepted as part of society. The city of Detroit alone had about 384 murders and the WHOLE of Canada had 548. Canada has 31.5 million people, Detroit, 893,000. So, why is Detroit's murder rate 25 times higher?... what's the explanation? Why are there so many murders in the US? The violent crime statistics are basically similar, but why so many goddamned murders? There's only one explanation and it's spelled g u n.

The Michael Moore film BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE makes a different point. He wanders around Toronto, knocking on and OPENING front doors; the people he encounters are not terrified, apparently, of their neighbors. He makes several statistical points: Not just the over-all murder rate in large U.S. cities is higher than all of Canada's, but the "per capita" rate is also much higher. BUT: He points out that gun ownership in Canada is actually HIGHER per capita than in the U.S. For Moore, it must be something other than just the existence of guns that causes the difference; it's something deeper in the way U.S. citizens think.

--
-------------------------------------------------
"Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence and ignorance." -------------------------------------------------
John Wager john.wager1@xxxxxxxxxxx
Lisle, IL, USA


Other related posts: