OzOne wrote in message news
On Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:39:16 GMT, "Maxprop"
scribbled thusly:
OzOne wrote in message
. ..
On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 20:52:31 -0600, "Bob Crantz"
scribbled thusly:
http://69.55.11.240/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=184241
Despite the sad death, It's heartening to see that gun control is
working in Japan and most other nations that take it seriously
http://www.guncite.com/cnngunde.html
Japan, where very few people own guns, averages 124 gun-related
attacks a year, and less than 1 percent end in death. Police often
raid the homes of those suspected of having weapons.
The study found that gun-related deaths were five to six times
higher in the Americas than in Europe or Australia and New Zealand and
95 times higher than in Asia.
Here are gun-related deaths per 100,000 people in the world's 36
richest countries in 1994: United States 14.24; Brazil 12.95; Mexico
12.69; Estonia 12.26; Argentina 8.93; Northern Ireland 6.63; Finland
6.46; Switzerland 5.31; France 5.15; Canada 4.31; Norway 3.82; Austria
3.70; Portugal 3.20; Israel 2.91; Belgium 2.90; Australia 2.65;
Slovenia 2.60; Italy 2.44; New Zealand 2.38; Denmark 2.09; Sweden
1.92; Kuwait 1.84; Greece 1.29; Germany 1.24; Hungary 1.11; Republic
of Ireland 0.97; Spain 0.78; Netherlands 0.70; Scotland 0.54; England
and Wales 0.41; Taiwan 0.37; Singapore 0.21; Mauritius 0.19; Hong Kong
0.14; South Korea 0.12; Japan 0.05.
All this data, and the info on Japan is interesting, Oz, but what has this
to do with the USA? There are an estimated 300+ million guns in
circulation
here. How do you propose to eliminate them? Are you willing to accept
the
carnage and civil war that would ensue with a government gun grab attempt,
which, by all estimates, would fail miserably. And even if a gun grab
were
modestly successful, what do you propose to do about the remaining 100+
million guns that would then be illegally possessed.
Tragedies such as the Virginia Tech episode are most unfortunate, and are
no
doubt a by-product of our culture of guns and violence. But we are stuck
with the problem. It's waaaay too far advanced to solve at this point
with
gun control or gun grabs. A more reasonable approach might be to deal
with
the culture of violence so prevalent in movies, TV, pop music, video
games,
etc.
I've heard quite a bit of gun control rhetoric on TV over the past 18
hours,
and most of it centers around handguns, ostensibly due to the
concealability
of them. In light of this it's important to note that the second worst
shooting of this nature occurred in the 60s with a wacko picking 23 people
off from a clock tower on a Texas college campus using a high-powered
rifle
with a scope. Hardly a concealment issue.
Max
I was reading an article recently about all the changes that have been
made in society when so many said "It just can't be done".
Gotta start somewhere.
Jon made the same point about slavery. I asked him if he was willing to see
the country enter a period of civil war with hundreds of thousands dead,
infrastructure destroyed, and an economy in the toilet for decades in order
to grab guns and save a few dozen lives each year. So far no answer.
Max