--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "george_deforest" > george.deforest@ wrote: > > > > America's gun control laws criticized abroad > > > > 17 April 2007 - The shooting of 32 students at a US university > > campus, Virginia Tech, sparked criticism of US gun control laws > > around the world Tuesday. Editorials lashed out at the availability > > of weapons, and the leader of Australia--one of America's closest > > allies--declared that America's gun culture was costing lives ... > > > > continues at: > > http://globalgoodnews.com/world-peace-a.html?art=117683948813516268 > > Typical TM see-what-we-want-to-see-ness. It's clear > that whoever wrote "While some focused blame only > on the gunman, world opinion over U.S. gun laws was > almost unanimous: Access to weapons increases the > probability of shootings" has ever seen Michael Moore's > "Bowling For Columbine." In that film he makes the > point that Canada has almost exactly the *same* > percentage of gun ownership per population as the US, > but does *not* have anything even *close* to America's > problems with gun-related violence. > > It's not the guns, it's their owners. Americans use > their guns to kill people with because they're > Americans and that's just what Americans DO. If they > didn't have access to guns they'd use knives and if > they didn't have access to knives they'd use sticks > and clubs and their own fists. >
Although I didn't come away from seeing "Bowling for Columbine" with the same impression of common sense from Michael Moore as you did, I concur completely with your last paragraph. Indeed, if you factor out the most violent crimes and those most associated with guns, the crime rate between the U.S. and Canada, per capita, it's even a little higher in several categories in Canada. See table below. Note also that the most serious and violent crimes (the top three categories below) only represent about 6% of all crimes. 94% of the crimes are the bottome three categories and Canada is higher in all of them except "other theft" (where it is, basically, a dead heat). In fact, if you factor in the 3% of the U.S. population (estimated at about 10 million) of illegal immigrants in the U.S. that are NOT included in census figures (upon which these stats are based), the figures are even worse for Canada. Crime rate comparisons between Canada and the United States 2000 Canada United States Real terms Rate(1) Real terms Rate(1) Homicide 542 1.8 15,517 5.5 Aggravated assault(2) 43,933 143 910,744 324 Robbery 27,012 88 407,842 145 Break and enter 293,416 954 2,049,946 728 Motor vehicle theft 160,268 521 1,165,559 414 Other theft 683,997 2,224 6,965,957 2,475 Arson 13,724 45 78,280 32 1 Rates are per 100,000 population. 2 For comparison purposes, the Canadian category of aggravated assault includes attempted murder, assault with a weapon and aggravated assault. from:http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/011218/d011218b.htm
