Ben Witherington says:
July 24, 2012 at 2:55 pm
I must say, as we draw this interesting discussion to a close, that it would be well if the more ardent American gun advocates who commented on this post would actually listen to what some of the international bloggers said on this post. America, when it comes to gun control, is an aberration compared to most civilized or highly developed nations. And yet with the plethora of weapons we have in the U.S. it has not made us any safer at all than other nations. Rather, it appears to have just poured gasoline on the fire of our being one of the most violent cultures in all of human history, both at home and abroad, both in war, and in peace.
Well, to take one comparison, Peter Hitchens isn’t very pleased with the state of law and order (or lack thereof) in contemporary England. For instance:
Pity Dr. Witherington doesn't read Another Slow News Day more often. If he did, he would have known that his description of America as being “one of the most violent cultures in all of human history, both at home and abroad” was, to say the least, overstated. In today's Update, in fact...
ReplyDeletehttp://anotherslownewsday.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/july-24-2012/
..., ASND featured a story published just this week in the U.K. Guardian (a self-proclaimed leftist newspaper) revealing that the U.S. murder rate is actually well below the world's current average.
There is an enormous amount of additional material on ASND – including reams of peer-reviewed scientific literature – from which Dr. Witherington could learn, including pages devoted to Gun Control...
http://anotherslownewsday.wordpress.com/self-defense/gun-control/
… and Self Defense.
http://anotherslownewsday.wordpress.com/self-defense/
Pity he's not likely to read any of them.
Yes, the US murder rate is below the "world" average. But that's including such peaceful paradises such as Mexico, etc. When compared with other "advanced" countries, the US is the worst, at least for gun violence:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/23/facebook-posts/the-us-is-no-in-gun-violence-is-it/
It all depends upon who you are comparing yourself to. Holding ourselves as better off than Mexico or Thailand or Brazil really isn't something to be proud of.