From: denis bider (denis.bider@globera.com)
Date: Fri Jan 19 2001 - 18:37:55 MST
Jerry Mitchell wrote:
> Some statistics a year after Australia's gun confiscation:
>
> Australia-wide, homicides up 3.2%
> Australia-wide, assaults up 8.6%
> Australia-wide, armed-robberies are up 44%!
> State of Victoria, homicides with firearms up 300%!
> ...
Very interesting.
[Did some research: these statistics seem to be marketed primarily by
firearms owners, and organizations like National Rifle Association, which
might be a bit biased. But I believe the numbers.]
Come to think of it, these results might not be that difficult to explain.
There are a bunch of criminals who earlier had weapons, but they might have
been afraid to use them against a random target because the target might
have been armed as well. Now, they can be quite sure that the target is
unarmed; hence the increase in their boldness.
My original message was probably a bit simplistic. I avoided the problem of
converting a society from one that worships firearms, like America, to one
that dislikes the sight of them, like us. But the problem is that people in
the former societies have grown up with guns, and they're not afraid of
using them - to them, guns seem natural, and a ban on firearms seems
terribly unnatural. [Quite the opposite of what people in my country would
think.]
>From the posts to this mailing list, it seems the problem is not only
converting the criminals to fear the sight of a gun, but also at the same
time to convert the police into being more of an ally rather than an
adversary. Everyone's basic attitude would have to change... let alone the
constitution.
I really don't know how this grand canyon can be bridged in less than a few
generations' time. So yeah, maybe you do have to stick with threatening to
shoot each other - at least for the time being.
[When I visit America, I'll drive around in a tank. :-) ]
- denis
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