Alex, you don't want to softly discuss the gun issue again, do you? Do you think all those teenagers would be killing each other if guns were not widely available? I know the causes of gun violence are complex, but a long time ago conflicts among children and adults were more often solved with minimal violence. It is harder, and slower, to kill someone with your fists, or even with a knife. I think these days people kill without even realizing what they are doing sometimes, because pulling a trigger is so far removed from the result.
Anyway, the 1994 gun death statistics have just become available:
GUN DEATHS
Gun-related deaths per 100,000 people in selected 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
israel 2.91
Italy 2.44
Kuwait 1.84
Germany 1.24
England and Wales 0.41
Taiwan 0.37
Hong Kong 0.14
South Korea 0.12
Japan 0.05
I know you see guns more as a personal freedom issue, and I am more concerned with public safety. But certainly, it seems obvious to me that simply living in a society where there are this many guns makes it much more likely that you will die at the hands of a gun, and these statistics bear this out.
What caused all the violent children is a much more complex issue, but certainly if all the guns disappeared tomorrow, the killings would stop immediately. I find it particularly scary that in Northern Ireland, where people are killing their neighbors deliberately, I would be safer, statistically speaking, than I am right here in America. |
