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Why does America have so many guns?
The Washington Post ^ | 19 December 2012 | Harold Meyerson

Posted on 12/19/2012 7:34:08 PM PST by MinorityRepublican

Compare the rate of murder by gun in the United States to the rate in any other advanced industrial nation, and you’re forced to draw one of two conclusions: Either there are far more homicidal people in this country than just about anyplace else on Earth, or far more guns. We must either be home to more people who succumb to murderous rage or who kill out of the coldest of calculations, or it’s easier to pick up a gun and start shooting here than in any comparable country.

And yet, I’ve never heard even the staunchest gun advocate make the case that Americans are inherently more homicidal than everyone else. They repeat ad nauseum that people, not guns, kill people; but they don’t argue that there’s something about Americans that make them kill more than their counterparts in other nations.

Meanwhile, look at the numbers. In the United States, there are 3.2 gun homicides per 100,000 residents every year. Switzerland has the next highest rate of any advanced Western democracy, at 0.7 per 100,000. After Switzerland, the rate drops to 0.5 in Ireland and Canada; 0.4 in Sweden and Finland; 0.2 in New Zealand, Spain and Germany; 0.1 in France, Britain and Australia; and a flat 0 in Japan.

Want to argue that we have 32 times the rate of dangerous mental illness that they have in Australia? That Americans are characterologically 16 times more murderous than Spaniards or Germans? I thought not.

But in America, people who snap are a hell of a lot more likely to have a gun close by. The rate of gun ownership in the United States is 89 per every 100 people. No other advanced society has a rate even close to that.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; commieagitprop; gunownership; guns; strawman
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To: MinorityRepublican

Many of the other mentioned countries have relied on the USA for defense over the years.


61 posted on 12/19/2012 8:22:15 PM PST by matt1234
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To: cripplecreek

Well, the USA may bristle with guns, but mine were lost in that rragic canoe accident.


62 posted on 12/19/2012 8:22:52 PM PST by MtnClimber (I did not vote for 0bama, someone else did that!)
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To: kcvl

Look at this sloppy lard-ass freak and read his history, why even reply / react to him?


63 posted on 12/19/2012 8:23:03 PM PST by Jonalan
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To: MinorityRepublican
Why does America have so many guns?

The same reason Americans have so many cars, boats, ATVs, computers, RVs, second homes, big screen TVs and college educations.

64 posted on 12/19/2012 8:24:10 PM PST by Alaska Wolf (Carry a Gun, It's a Lighter Burden Than Regret)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Attention WaPo: “An armed society is a polite society” — except in large American Democrat-run cities that are war zones. To paraphrase ex-DC Mayor Marion Barry: “If you take out the murders, crime in Washington is very low.”
65 posted on 12/19/2012 8:29:23 PM PST by MasterGunner01
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To: MinorityRepublican

Because they are our Liberty Teeth and the fact that the last defense against tyranny is an armed citizenry.


66 posted on 12/19/2012 8:33:10 PM PST by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Other countries use more primitive tools to murder.


67 posted on 12/19/2012 8:35:17 PM PST by Rightwing Conspiratr1
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To: cripplecreek

Conservative estimate for TX is 2 privately owned guns for every man woman and child in the state. Some families have none. Others many.


68 posted on 12/19/2012 8:39:50 PM PST by Texas Fossil
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To: MinorityRepublican

One word... Rwanda.


69 posted on 12/19/2012 8:40:34 PM PST by Organic Panic
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To: ldish

Our population is far more diverse than any of the other advanced industrial nations.


70 posted on 12/19/2012 8:41:55 PM PST by kabar
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To: Jonalan

Harold Meyerson (@HaroldMeyerson) tweeted at 9:29pm - 22 Oct 12:

A tragedy that in a prosperous nation, times are so hard, says Mitt. That’s why we need redistribution.

(https://twitter.com/HaroldMeyerson/status/260568520625123330)


71 posted on 12/19/2012 8:42:59 PM PST by kcvl
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To: MinorityRepublican

“Why does America have so many guns?”
Because we are citizens, not subjects. Or, because we true Americans understand that guns are real power; not the artificial power created by legislation, or resolutions, or court decisions, or even money, and that the fundamental balance of power between citizens and government must favor the citizens. Perhaps, in light of that, because it would be sub-moronic not to.


72 posted on 12/19/2012 8:44:15 PM PST by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Ummm...to protect ourselves from people like you.


73 posted on 12/19/2012 8:55:46 PM PST by Victor (If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert." -David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister)
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To: MinorityRepublican

So many guns for ultimate protection against federal, state and local givernment..
Sure they can still kill you but you can one or two of them with you..

Many forget how powerful the North Vietnamese were against over whelming forces..
But you also need to propagandize the traitorous members of your family and neighbors as well..

propaganda primer-—>> http://evansayet.com/blog/


74 posted on 12/19/2012 9:04:45 PM PST by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole..)
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To: MinorityRepublican

It’s a big country. Three days can pass before you even get out of Texas....


75 posted on 12/19/2012 9:05:21 PM PST by JouleZ (You are the company you keep.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

A lot of countries like the idea of disarming everybody. And that is one way to reduce gun violence.

Our founders chose a different route — to arm everybody, thus still keeping a level playing field, and discouraging the government from overruning the citizens.

But in recent years, too many of our citizens have lost interest in defending themselves. And because of that, the criminals have gotten a free pass, and are killing more and more people more brazenly.

Because in our system of government, it won’t work if the law-abiding citizens crawl into holes and expect government to do everything. So those people who expect government to change their diapers are all upset that government can’t protect them — so instead of doing the sane thing, they want to disarm everybody.

One thing is clear — we’ll never have a genocide in this country. Because when we see it starting, people will rise up and stop it. Other countries, it was easy to commit atrocities, since the ruling class had all the guns.

If we had concealed carry for airplanes on 9/11, it is likely the death toll suffered by our country would have been less. EVEN WITH NO WEAPONS, one plane was able to overcome their attackers and stop their plane from it’s target.


76 posted on 12/19/2012 9:10:59 PM PST by CharlesWayneCT
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To: MinorityRepublican
Is Mexico a "advanced industrial nation?" What is their homicide rate? It's important that we remember to count the 700 or so murders by guns supplied to the drug cartels by the Obama regime...

Mark

77 posted on 12/19/2012 9:13:24 PM PST by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
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To: Alaska Wolf
Lanza did not snap. He meticulously planned and executed mass murder. His is the face of pure, unadulterated evil!

And isn't it interesting that the government and the media don't include other people who conducted mass slaughter of civilians, including children, in the discussion. Somehow bombers, like McVeigh, or air hijackers like the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack aren't included. But didn't some evil guys with box cutters kill way more people on 9/11? And didn't McVeigh bomb a day care center in the Murrow Federal Building?

Of course if your goal is to attack gun owners you wouldn't include those non gun assaults, which were much more deadly, in the discussion. Also excluded, no doubt for the same reason, is a discussion of children killed in other ways as a direct result of mental illness - like the two kids pushed into traffic on I-495 in 2008 by their aunt who suffered some kind of mental illness.

78 posted on 12/19/2012 9:18:02 PM PST by freeandfreezing
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To: MinorityRepublican
Self defense against mass murderers is a universal God-given right, and our Founding Fathers had the genius to know this long before these people came into being:

We all are familiar with Stalin, Hitler and Mao. All fans of unarmed citizenry.

Chiang Kai-shek (China: 1928-49)
Enver Pasha (Turkey: 1913-18)
Hirohito (Japan: 1926-89)
Hirota Koki (Japan: 1936-37)
Ho Chi Minh (North Vietnam: 1945-69)
Kim Il Sung (North Korea: 1948-94)
Lenin (USSR: 1917-24)
Leopold II (Belgium: 1865-1909)
Nicholas II (Russia: 1894-1917)
Pol Pot (Cambodia: 1975-79)
Saddam Hussein (Iraq: 1969- )
Tojo Hideki (Japan: 1941-44)
Wilhelm II (Germany: 1888-1918)
Yahya Khan (Pakistan: 1969-71)
Idi Amin (Uganda: 1971-80)
Ion Antonescu (Romania: 1940-44)
Ataturk (Turkey: 1920-38)
Francisco Franco (Spain: 1939-75)
Gheoghe Gheorghiu-Dej (Romania: 1945-65)
Yakubu Gowon (Nigeria: 1966-76)
Radovan Karadzic (Serbian Bosnia: 1991-96)
Babrac Kemal (Afghanistan: 1979-87)
Le Duan (Vietnam: 1976-86)
Haile Mengistu (Ethiopia: 1974-91)
Benito Mussolini (Italy: 1922-43)
Ante Pavelic (Croatia: 1941-45)
Antonio de Salazar (Portugal: 1932-68)
Hadji Suharto (Indonesia: 1967-97)
Tito (Yugoslavia: 1945-80)

79 posted on 12/19/2012 9:24:56 PM PST by 444Flyer
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To: JouleZ

They have slow trains in Ireland, too.


80 posted on 12/19/2012 9:25:12 PM PST by coloradan (The US has become a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
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