--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradhatu@> wrote:
> >
> > Gun safety, esp. since it's a horrendous problem in the US,
> > should look to nations with few gun problems and at least
> > get some concrete plans.
>
> Vaj, with all due respect, the only "plan" that
> one could get from other countries with regard
> to guns would involve having a time machine that
> works. They'd have to go back in time and remove
> the backlog of guns that are *currently* owned
> by citizens. Most of the saner countries *always*
> had restrictions on gun ownership.
>
> And that's a hard thing to undo. All of the friends
> I've had who were gun freaks have plans in place
> to *hide* their guns should laws be enacted to
> cause them to turn them in to the guvmint. The
> existing guns are here to stay, sadly. The only
> laws that can have any effect will have to do with
> the purchase and ownership of new ones.
>
> But the larger problem is the "temperament" of the
> countries themselves. As pointed out in "Bowling
> For Columbine," Canada has about the same percent-
> age of gun ownership that America does, but only
> a fraction of its gun deaths per year. The problem
> is not *necessarily* to be found in the guns but
> in the gun *owners*.
>
> I find all of this rather sad to read, because of
> the *assumption* on the part of FFL posters that
> life is a dangerous thing, and that they have to
> worry about carrying some weapon to protect them-
> selves with as they walk to their cars. I don't.
> I haven't had to for six years, in France or here
> in Spain.
>
> The problem is not the guns. The problem is the
> people who own them. Guns don't go crazy; people
> do. Here are the stats, from the CDC, on how that
> craziness breaks down by country. Note the ranking
> of Switzerland in the list, where every household
> is *required* to own a gun, as part of its militia
> preparedness. Compare to the US. The problem is
> not the guns; it's their owners.
>
> The United States leads the world's richest nations in gun deaths --
> murders, suicides, and accidental deaths due to guns - according to a
> study published April 17, 1998 by the Centers for Disease Control and
> Prevention (CDC) in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
>
> The U.S. was first at 14.24 gun deaths per 100,000 people. Two other
> countries in the Americas came next. Brazil was second with 12.95,
> followed by Mexico with 12.69.
>
> Japan had the lowest rate, at 0.05 gun deaths per 100,000 (1 per 2
> million people). The police in Japan actively raid homes of those
> suspected of having weapons.
>
> The 36 countries in the study were the richest in the World Bank's
> 1994 World Development Report, having the highest GNP per capita income.
>
> The United States accounted for 45 percent of the 88,649 gun deaths
> reported in the study, the first comprehensive international scrutiny
> of gun-related deaths.
>
> The gun-related deaths per 100,000 people in 1994 by country were as
> follows:
>
> * U.S.A. 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
> * Norway 3.82
> * Austria 3.70
> * Portugal 3.20
> * Israel 2.91
> * Belgium 2.90
> * Australia 2.65
> * Slovenia 2.60
> * Italy 2.44
> * New Zealand 2.38
> * Denmark 2.09
> * Sweden 1.92
> * Kuwait 1.84
> * Greece 1.29
> * Germany 1.24
> * Hungary 1.11
> * Ireland 0.97
> * Spain 0.78
> * Netherlands 0.70
> * Scotland 0.54
> * England and Wales 0.41
> * Taiwan 0.37
> * Singapore 0.21
> * Mauritius 0.19
> * Hong Kong 0.14
> * South Korea 0.12
> * Japan 0.05
>
++ Read recently that there were increasing numbers of knives killing
people in Japan.
