[lit-ideas] Re: Nigerian gun control as an example for us
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 12:10:01 -0500
Lawrence,
We both want a society that is as safe and secure as possible within a social
framework that permits as much individual liberty as possible so that we can
pursue "happiness" (or the fullness of our potential) as we perceive it. There
is and will always be a tension between the two since one man's pursuit of
happiness can be at the cost of another's. And because we are a multicultural
nation and have no Yahweh to tell us the way, we on our own. We have to work
it out among ourselves. We're constantly bargaining personal liberties for
safety and security as we deem necessary for the greater good and vice versa.
That you believe guns enhance our security doesn't surprise me, I'm a son of
the South, born and bred in the gun culture, a pistol was my pacifier. What
does surprise me is that you persist in arguing that guns make us safer in the
face of so much evidence to the contrary. For instance this:
"The US gun death rates are far higher than any other industrialized countries,
and among the highest recorded in the world. 2005 statitics indicate that the
US had 10,100 gun homicides compared to 222 in Canada. While the US and Canada
have comparable rates of homicides without guns (1.79 vs. 1.35 per 100,000),
the US firearms homicide rate is 5 times Canada's (2.03 vs. 0.38 per 100,000).
The US also has 5.8 times the rate per 100,000 of robberies committed with
firearms even though the rates of robberies without firearms are comparable.
"While some American states have regulations comparable to other industrialized
countries, guns flow freely across state borders. The USA's 220 million guns
account for almost 1/3 of all the guns in the world. American guns don't just
kill Americans -- they fuel the illegal gun trade and gun violence across the
world. At least half the illegal handguns recovered in Canada and 80% of crime
guns in Mexico originate in the United States."
http://www.guncontrol.ca/English/Home/Releases/0407GlobalGunEpidemic.pdf
America's failure to pass uniform gun control laws and to vigorously enforce
those laws, will eventually bring about the draconian measures I recommend. If
there were any intelligence within the NRA, they would recognize this and take
stalwart action to limit the damage of gun possession, but no, they want all
regulation abolished. Fine. Their days are numbered.
Mike Geary
Memphis
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