[Osx-nutters] Are you safer?

[Chuck Bennett]

On Oct 13, 2006, at 2:14 AM, David Cake wrote:

> At 10:23 AM -0400 12/10/06, Chuck Bennett wrote:
>> On Oct 11, 2006, at 11:53 PM, Chris Gehlker wrote:
>>>
>>> The statistics are from the CDC, Wikipedia and  some anti drug  
>>> war site. The categories  clearly are not mutually  exclusive.  
>>> Nevertheless, I think they show that discussions about the safety  
>>> of US citizens on US soil from acts of  terrorism  are really  
>>> about something else. People who were really concerned about  
>>> safety would be better off focusing their energy on gun control.  
>>> Somehow, I don't think that's going to happen.
>>
>>
>> Man, if we could just get Palestine to do that..   I have an odd  
>> feeling that their per-capita gun violence problem dwarfs the US.
>
> 	Sure. But thats like defending your bad school reports by saying  
> your marks are better than the kids from the special bus.
> 	Compared to countries that have a comparable economy, society, etc  
> - the US has a problem.
> 	Cheers
> 		Dave


Oh, I don't disagree with that at all.

The U.S. has a violence problem.     Where I will most likely always  
disagree with some on the list is that the violence problem is a  
'gun' problem.  As you point out, compared to countries with similar  
economies etc, we have a problem.

I think it runs far deeper than than that but I don't even pretend to  
have an answer for it.  For sure, a lot of the violence has it roots  
in drug related crime either directly
or as a derivative side effect, but that speaks more to the stupid  
way we wage a "war on drugs" than anything else.   (Aside) I suspect  
that Nancy Reagan's oft mocked "Just Say No" program prevented more  
drug use than 10,000 DEA agents.

=c=