From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Thu Dec 27 2001 - 11:58:35 MST
Kai Becker wrote:
>
> Am Mittwoch, 26. Dezember 2001 03:52 schrieb James Rogers:
> > On 12/25/01 6:41 PM, "Kai Becker" <kmb@kai-m-becker.de> wrote:
> > > If the right to bear arms - especially concealed guns - is so important
> > > to have a low crime rate, why is the rate of violent crimes so much
> > > higher in the US than in other countries?
> >
> > You have obviously missed an important point. Widespread concealed carry
> > lowers the violent crime rate *relative to that population*.
>
> Ah, I see. This would mean, that US americans are about four times more
> violent and potential criminals than citizens of other western countries.
> Hm. The USA a 3rd world country? Hm. This brings Mikes argument about not
> trusting non-residents and immigrants back into mind. Europe, Asia and
> Australia should, following this argument, not trust US citizens to behave
> according to our civil, low crime society here and restrict visas and such.
> Hm.
No. Demographically, the US IS a 3rd world country. We have the highest
percentage of minorities of any industrialized nation, and the largest
population of Africans outside Africa. Crime is very much a function of
socio-economic dissatisfaction/disenfranchisement. If, for instance, you
separate crime in Australia and crime in the US along racial lines, you
will find that the crime rates of African-Americans and Aboriginal
Australians are very similar. If you remove these two populations from
the mix, you will find that US and Australian crime rates are highly
congruent, although the US would be higher slightly. If you also removed
the hispanic population from the US mix, the US would have a lower crime
rate than Australia that is roughly proportionate to the percent of the
US population that legally carries concealed weapons.
Similarly, Germany is highly homogenous as a nation, as is Britain and
Canada, Japan, etc. If, however, you compare our countries after
adjusting for these demographic differences, you will find our crime
rates are lower, on average.
Now, I notice that you prefer to focus on violent crime. What about
property crime?
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