Ted,
Being a "European", I think you better not idealize our society. True, gun control is almost not an issue here, because everybody accepts it. Also, most criminals don't wear any guns when they break into your house, because punishment is enormously higher when they do, and most of them are not stupid. Only the completely wacko and some amateurs are doing armed robbery, most of them get caught rather quickly.
But what I want to point out, I have bin several times in the US, and it always surprise me how disciplined you are driving over there. If you ever drove a car in Brussels, or even worse, Paris or the cities in Italy or Spain, you will know what I mean. I don't know the statistics, but I'm sure we here have a lot more traffic killings and injuries than in the US.
So , how can people be more disciplined in one thing and not in the other, I don't know. It must have something to do with tradition and mentality, things you don't change very quickly.
This will not say you just have to let things go, I think we have to do something on the driving and you have to do something on the violence, but it is about changing mentality and that is very difficult.
Bert |
