Re: "smart guns" from Australia

From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Mon Apr 10 2000 - 09:59:28 MDT


On Monday, April 10, 2000 3:04 AM KPJ kpj@sics.se wrote:
> It appears as if James Rogers <jamesr@best.com> wrote:
> |3) The vast majority of society in the U.S. enjoys an effective murder
> |rate at or below that of most of Europe, most notably in areas that
> |encourage "taking out the trash". Distribution tends to be very uneven,
> |with a few geographically small locales contributing to the vast majority
> |of the statistics.
>
> Can I acquire a copy of the distribution information through WWW?

I'm not sure where, but you might check the FBI's web site. They do most of
the national reporting on crime statistics in the US.

> Would not most humans, both those living in, and those visiting the United
> States, wish to see the information, preferably in the form of a map, the
> more detailed the better, so they who prefer to avoid death and mutilation
> can avoid the dangerous places where, apparently, the Bad Guys, Inc., kill
> humans with impunity?

Problem might be, e.g., some of the safest places are sleepy suburban
communities with no tourist attractions. I recall several years ago the
alleged safest place in New York State was some little village way up north
where it was pretty cold most of the year. In fact, it was one of the
snowiest places in NY State, which might account for the low crime rate.
(That said, when I used to live in a very high crime neighborhood and worked
nights, I always felt safer when it was raining, cold, or snowing. Less
people were out and I felt my chances are being harassed were lower.
Certainly, the few times anyone did bother me were when those conditions did
not hold, so there might be a causal relation here.:)

Also, I imagine those places are not the job havens the big cities are.

> Has anybody produced such a map already? If not, why not?
>
> It seems there would exist a large market for such detailed maps.

I'm not sure, though what does happen frequently in the US is there's
mention in the major Media outlets of the safest cities and the most
dangerous ones. Also, there's a mention of the best places to live in the
US as measured along several parameters, including crime rates. (But also
including cost of living, taxes, etc.)



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