Quote:
Originally Posted by Radar
The rate of violent crimes in general is higher in nations that prohibit gun ownership, including Canada, Australia, and the UK.
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Radar, can you provide some evidence for this claim?
Wikipedia offers the following
list of murder rates per 100,000 people (most recent data):
USA: 5.9
UK: 2.03
Canada: 2.01
Australia: 1.28
You're MUCH more likely to be murdered if you live in the US than one of the other countries you claim have higher levels of violent crime.
Meanwhile this
site (NationMaster, they say their figures come from the CIA world factbook) gives figures for assaults per 1,000:
US: 7.569
UK: 7.459
Canada: 7.118
Australia: 7.024
Which are more pretty much the same. What this says to me is that these cultures are about equally violent, but in the US the violence is more likely to lead to death.
This site also gives the
figures for robberies per 1,000 (which combine violence with property crime)
UK: 1.574
USA: 1.385
Australia: 1.160
Canada: 0.823
Ok, second out of four, but first for assaults and clear first in murders. I suspect that this is simply because it is so much easier for an assault to become a murder when one or both parties have guns.
Maybe this is the price the USA chooses to pay in exchange for the benefits of an armed populace, and that is the decision of those who live there, that is, you and not me.
But you will be more persuasive if you can keep your facts correct and refrain from disparaging other countries.