The wussifying of America

[mawilson 2,133]

Robot Chicken. Are you advocating gun control?

[Peikko 1,575]

Read the statistics and make of it what you will

Rank Countries Amount (top to bottom)

#1 Colombia: 0.617847 per 1,000 people

#2 South Africa: 0.496008 per 1,000 people

#3 Jamaica: 0.324196 per 1,000 people

#4 Venezuela: 0.316138 per 1,000 people

#5 Russia: 0.201534 per 1,000 people

#6 Mexico: 0.130213 per 1,000 people

#7 Estonia: 0.107277 per 1,000 people

#8 Latvia: 0.10393 per 1,000 people

#9 Lithuania: 0.102863 per 1,000 people

#10 Belarus: 0.0983495 per 1,000 people

#11 Ukraine: 0.094006 per 1,000 people

#12 Papua New Guinea: 0.0838593 per 1,000 people

#13 Kyrgyzstan: 0.0802565 per 1,000 people

#14 Thailand: 0.0800798 per 1,000 people

#15 Moldova: 0.0781145 per 1,000 people

#16 Zimbabwe: 0.0749938 per 1,000 people

#17 Seychelles: 0.0739025 per 1,000 people

#18 Zambia: 0.070769 per 1,000 people

#19 Costa Rica: 0.061006 per 1,000 people

#20 Poland: 0.0562789 per 1,000 people

#21 Georgia: 0.0511011 per 1,000 people

#22 Uruguay: 0.045082 per 1,000 people

#23 Bulgaria: 0.0445638 per 1,000 people

#24 United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people

#25 Armenia: 0.0425746 per 1,000 people

#26 India: 0.0344083 per 1,000 people

#27 Yemen: 0.0336276 per 1,000 people

#28 Dominica: 0.0289733 per 1,000 people

#29 Azerbaijan: 0.0285642 per 1,000 people

#30 Finland: 0.0283362 per 1,000 people

#31 Slovakia: 0.0263303 per 1,000 people

#32 Romania: 0.0250784 per 1,000 people

#33 Portugal: 0.0233769 per 1,000 people

#34 Malaysia: 0.0230034 per 1,000 people

#35 Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of: 0.0229829 per 1,000 people

#36 Mauritius: 0.021121 per 1,000 people

#37 Hungary: 0.0204857 per 1,000 people

#38 Korea, South: 0.0196336 per 1,000 people

#39 Slovenia: 0.0179015 per 1,000 people

#40 France: 0.0173272 per 1,000 people

#41 Czech Republic: 0.0169905 per 1,000 people

#42 Iceland: 0.0168499 per 1,000 people

#43 Australia: 0.0150324 per 1,000 people

#44 Canada: 0.0149063 per 1,000 people

#45 Chile: 0.014705 per 1,000 people

#46 United Kingdom: 0.0140633 per 1,000 people

#47 Italy: 0.0128393 per 1,000 people

#48 Spain: 0.0122456 per 1,000 people

#49 Germany: 0.0116461 per 1,000 people

#50 Tunisia: 0.0112159 per 1,000 people

#51 Netherlands: 0.0111538 per 1,000 people

#52 New Zealand: 0.0111524 per 1,000 people

#53 Denmark: 0.0106775 per 1,000 people

#54 Norway: 0.0106684 per 1,000 people

#55 Ireland: 0.00946215 per 1,000 people

#56 Switzerland: 0.00921351 per 1,000 people

#57 Indonesia: 0.00910842 per 1,000 people

#58 Greece: 0.0075928 per 1,000 people

#59 Hong Kong: 0.00550804 per 1,000 people

#60 Japan: 0.00499933 per 1,000 people

#61 Saudi Arabia: 0.00397456 per 1,000 people

#62 Qatar: 0.00115868 per 1,000 people

[AnaAndDaniel 0]

'In all fairness, it must be noted that many of the countries with high murder rates have governments and cultures very different from our own. '

IMO that is the most important sentence in that article.

yep. i did a quick google on mexican murder rates. found a link to a wikipedia article (sorry, did not copy link but sure you can find it). It has a nice table there along with buch of other info. i found it inetersting that they differentiated between murder and and murder with firearm. Mexico's number was higher on the plain murder while the US was higher in the murder with firearm category. I wa salso thinking that the advantage the uS has is its justice system. making a long story short, we incarcerate a lot more criminals thus lowering the murder rate a bit. <-- that is an example of differing gov't policies making a difference.

also would be interesting to see if you cut out drug cartel murders by firearms in mexico and see what kind of dent that would make. <-- another example on how different country/situaton plays with the numbers.

and another point yet would be that even though mexicohas strict gun control laws, the reality is that there are many guns in mexico. so it makes for a bad choice as an example for a country with gun control argument. pick a country with a strict gun control law and that has been effetive in enforcing that. japan comes to mind. then compare the murder rates. i believe you will find that the murder rates there are a lot lower.

personally, i do not own/use guns. but i do not believe in abolishing the right to bear arms. B) This issue is quite complex.

Daniel

:energetic:

[Robor007 0]

Robot Chicken. Are you advocating gun control?

I would be fine with it and I own a gun - it doesn't leave my house though.

[homesick_american 1]

I wonder how that analogy compares to the US, with its ambitious public prosecutors?

Japanese Police

Public order and internal security in Japan

The American justice system usually gets it right. There are some aberrations,

such as the OJ case, but most of the time the system works very well.

The Japanese system looks very good on paper, but in reality it's seriously flawed.

If you're a foreigner in Japan, you can forget about justice.

I've heard about that...pretty scary stuff.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I wonder how that analogy compares to the US, with its ambitious public prosecutors?

Japanese Police

Public order and internal security in Japan

The American justice system usually gets it right. There are some aberrations,

such as the OJ case, but most of the time the system works very well.

The Japanese system looks very good on paper, but in reality it's seriously flawed.

If you're a foreigner in Japan, you can forget about justice.

Going by the recent experience of a friend of mine - I'd dispute that assertion. Also considering the cases of mentally ill people who have committed crimes where the illness is not regarded as a mitigating factor in the trial and subsequent sentencing. I've seen enough to worry about ever getting on the wrong side of the law over here - more so in certain states.

[Robor007 0]

Robot Chicken. Are you advocating gun control?

I would be fine with it and I own a gun - it doesn't leave my house though.

Too late to edit... Let me expand on that. I'm not saying eliminate the ability for citizens to own a gun. I'm saying much more strict laws on who can own them and when they can carry them.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Nowhere did I say HK > USA. My point is more guns = more gun violence.

I say the better analogy for the proliferation firearms to reduce crime is putting a band-aid on a cancer.

[mawilson 2,133]

Too late to edit... Let me expand on that. I'm not saying eliminate the ability for citizens to own a gun.

I'm saying much more strict laws on who can own them and when they can carry them.

I'm ok with the former (psychic evaluation and such) but not the latter.

[Jenn! 918]

I'm ok with the former (psychic evaluation and such) but not the latter.

Ooh, what's that? No guns for you unless you can see the future?

Edited April 20, 2007 by jenn3539

[Peikko 1,575]

Probably not a bad idea

[mawilson 2,133]

Going by the recent experience of a friend of mine - I'd dispute that assertion.

What happened to your friend?

I'm ok with the former (psychic evaluation and such) but not the latter.

Ooh, what's that? No guns for you unless you can see the future?

LOL - psychiatric, but psychic sounds so much better

[Caladan 19]

Seeing the future would definitely help you rush the gunman.

(Nothing more to say about the "I'm not blaming the victims, but I'm blaming the wussy victims" sort of posts. If you think your average 18-year-old can count the number of shots being fired in not one, but two semi-automatic weapons while being shot at, with no cover, and decide when to charge the gunman when it takes about 5-10 seconds to reload a clip.... you're pretty far gone from reality.)

[Robor007 0]

Seeing the future would definitely help you rush the gunman.

(Nothing more to say about the "I'm not blaming the victims, but I'm blaming the wussy victims" sort of posts. If you think your average 18-year-old can count the number of shots being fired in not one, but two semi-automatic weapons while being shot at, with no cover, and decide when to charge the gunman when it takes about 5-10 seconds to reload a clip.... you're pretty far gone from reality.)

I'm guessing he had a bunch of pre-loaded clips. If they were easily reached it would take only a second or two at most.

[Caladan 19]

Early reports were saying about 10 second pauses in firing, but it's hard to say because it's not like the eyewitnesses were keeping time.