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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (692215)	1/10/2013 9:13:51 PM
From: i-node	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576826

>> Some countries with the most restrictive gun laws have worse violence than America. Mexico in particular has 1/6 the number of guns per capita compared to America, yet they have a HUGE problem with gun violence. Good point, and the underlying question (Why?) never seems to get an answer from the Left. This argument toward banning guns is total misdirection. There are undoubtedly various causes for the increase in violence, and if one argues that it is all about guns that is a stupid argument. What about first-person shooter video games? What about extreme violence in movies? What about the welfare state (which encourages half-families in which there is no father as a role model), and which breeds contempt for human independence? What about the drug war, which has made inner cities into gangbanger turf? All this stuff is at least as culpable as guns. Some of it is controlled by liberals and could be shut down in a minute if they chose to do so. Yet, the fingers are being pointed at guns. Ultimately, the focus on guns is causing everyone to take their eyes off the ball. And that is why the attack on gun owners can only result in a worsening of the problem.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (692215)	1/10/2013 9:47:12 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1576826

That's because all the Mexican drug lords cross the border and buy guns here. It's OUR gun laws that are causing Mexico's problems, not theirs. Our Opinion: Guns: our most deadly export ] by Tucson Citizen on Mar. 07, 2009, under Opinion U.S. weapons are as much a part of border violence as smuggled drugs from Mexico Soldiers stand guard during a November presentation of weapons seized during an operation against the Gulf cartel in Mexico City. In our rush to erect walls and beef up the Border Patrol to keep people and drugs from being smuggled into the United States from Mexico, we have overlooked an equally important problem: The vast quantities of guns smuggled from the United States into Mexico – guns largely responsible for the massive increase in violence on both sides of the border. Mexican President Felipe Calderón recently said his police and military are dangerously outgunned as they go after powerful drug cartels. Over the past two years, about 800 law enforcement officials have been slain. And almost all of the weapons used in those murders are coming from the United States. That allegation was supported by the U.S. State Department, which reported that guns bought or stolen in the United States were used in 95 percent of the 6,290 drug-related murders in Mexico last year and the more than 1,000 killings so far this year. This is not a Second Amendment issue, which protects the rights of Americans to keep and bear arms. The U.S. should aggressively enforce current gun laws to keep weapons in the hands of law-abiding Americans. The United States and Mexico are the closest of friends – but in some ways, we also are the worst of enemies. Mexico is the leading source of drugs brought into the United States, and Americans are eager customers. And it is American drug users who finance the cartels, which are becoming so violent they pose a real security threat to the United States. Last December, top officials in the Bush administration pledged that the U.S. would supply more money, training and equipment to help Mexico crack down on drugs. That hasn’t worked. Instead, the Obama administration should follow through on promises by Attorney General Eric Holder to enforce a long-ignored ban on importing assault-style weapons. Many are illegally resold and shipped to Mexico. Raul Yzaguirre, executive director of the Center for Community Development and Civil Rights at Arizona State University recently wrote in the Tucson Citizen about the difficult relationship between the United States and Mexico: “Mexico’s drug lords give law-enforcement authorities and anyone else who stands in their way a choice: ‘plomo o plata.’ Literally, lead or silver. (The lead is meant for the whole family.) “Mexico may be supplying the drugs, but Americans are providing the lead and the silver.” Yes, Mexico must do more to keep its drugs and people from illegally entering the United States. But we are neighbors who share a property line, and the United States has the same responsibility to keep guns from illegally entering Mexico. Each nation must get its house in order. The safety of people on both sides of the border is at stake.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (692215)	1/10/2013 9:59:33 PM
From: SilentZ	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1576826

>Some countries with the most restrictive gun laws have worse violence than America. Mexico in particular has 1/6 the number of guns per capita compared to America, yet they have a HUGE problem with gun violence. Being an Ivy Leaguer and an engineer, you've obviously taken some statistics, so the term "outlier" means something to you, right? I just posted a similar chart to Steve, but: static3.businessinsider.com See where Mexico is? All the way up in the top left corner near well, no one else? Isn't that the textbook definition of an outlier? That would lead one to believe that there's a different factor other than its percentage of gun ownership that places it so, so far up the Y-axis from the pinko countries in the lower left quadrant of the lower left quadrant, while also being basically equally as far from the U.S., all the way over there in the lower right quadrant. Once again, you very well be right on this issue (it's not one that for which I'm going to proverbially die on a hill [though, strangely, I might literally do so]), but it's not for the reason you're citing. -Z

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (692215)	1/11/2013 5:52:06 AM
From: Alighieri	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576826

Mexico in particular has 1/6 the number of guns per capita compared to America, yet they have a HUGE problem with gun violence. Ten, the data is pretty consistent. Fewer guns equals lower murder rate by guns...then there are special cases like central america, where the drug smugglers kill indiscriminately and widely. I don't consider these cases to be relevant to our problem. Al ================================================================================= Chart: The U.S. has far more gun-related killings than any other developed country Posted by Max Fisher on December 14, 2012 at 4:50 pm Data source: United Nations (Max Fisher — The Washington Post) The Sandy Hook Elementary shooting that killed 27, including 20 children, is already generating the same conversation that every mass shooting in America generates: Why are there so many shootings? One piece of this puzzle is the national rate of firearm-related murders, which is charted above. The United States has by far the highest per capita rate of all developed countries. According to data compiled by the United Nations, the United States has four times as many gun-related homicides per capita as do Turkey and Switzerland, which are tied for third. The U.S. gun murder rate is about 20 times the average for all other countries on this chart. That means that Americans are 20 times as likely to be killed by a gun than is someone from another developed country. The above chart measures data for the nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes all Western countries plus Turkey, Israel, Chile, Japan, and South Korea. I did not include Mexico, which has about triple the U.S. rate due in large part to the ongoing drug war. The rate in several developing countries, particularly in Latin America, is significantly higher. Honduras, which has been called the murder capital of the world, has an average firearm murder rate that’s about 20 times America’s. But make no mistake: For a rich, developed country, the U.S. gun-related homicide rate is very, very high.