Wow. My simple reply to Agricola's pithy remark has ended up in yet another killer thread.
I should make a couple of things clear. Critical has asked how do I know how the Europeans view the Americans. He has implied that my position is based on false evidence. He does deserve an answer, regardless of his tone. Are you paying attention? It is really very simple: I am European. I am also a US citizen but I was not born or raised as such. My family is scatered all over that old continent. I still talk to them.
But all that means nothing. I could have been born and raised in some back county of Indiana and never been further then 200 miles from the family farm. There is this thing called the internet, and through this wonderful thing we have access to european papers. All of them. And most of us can read. Some can even read other languages. Crazy, I know.
Also Americans have this wiered thing about following politics, even if they choose not to vote. They even follow the politics of other countries. And they listen to what the politicos of other countries are saying, in public and in print. You you think that the bias I have described in my first post is imagined, then perhaps you should also read your own papers and listen to your own politicians.
Heck, I didnt even bother to pick on the British law system, such as it is. I was only annoyed that Agricola chose a shacky defence. He implied that "crap happens" yet in the past he has used American crime statistics to point out our own failures, of which we have pleanty. However Critical has decided to start a rather strange argument. And unlike Agricola (who I disagree with but he I admit tries to keep arguments based on logic and fact and thus I respect him for it), Critical has launched in a vitriolic passive agressive defence of the laws of his country. I wouldn't even mind that, had he made a rational argument.
The problem is that Critical has taken a strange position. Instead of explaining why we are seeing more and more reports about violent crime in England and Walles (and as far as I can tell he is right about the lesser troubles in Scottland) he has chosen to argue that gun control is not the cause of crime. Well, no kidding. Inanimate objects which can not be snorted, drunk, or smoked rarelly alter the state of mind of law abidding citizens. No one is saying that gun control causes crime, anymore then we would say that guns themselves cause crime. What we are saying is that the current legal and social climate of the UK (or more populous sections thereof) is encouraging crime.
Lets face it folks. Man is not really all that noble after all. For %99.99 of our history we have been ruled the guy with the bigger weapon, from a sharp rock to a cannon. Transpose any of us here into one of those not so far gone times and most of us would quickly revert to some form of kill or be killed view of the world, and for that matter to an attitude fostering the rule of the strong. Don't believe me? Ask the psycologists. They know. They have run experimets that have scared them into self imposed bans on certain types of research. Ask me how I know. (hint: I can read)
To think that those impules are going to go away because we can make cheap soap and expensive MP3 players is somewhat naive, if a bit charming and romantic. There are two ways to stop roving gangs of young and hormone packed young men. One is force, the other is providing them with a healthy outlet for their aggression. Face it, that aggretion is a good thing. It the same thing that keep the cave safe when the tribe over the hill wants to expend. It is the same thing that makes huge nations spend untold billions racing to put a flag on a dust ball in the sky. Aggression and competitve drives are what has gotten us from eating lice from our own fur, to being where we are now.
But take away the constructive outlets for that agression, or the threat of force, and it reverts back to its most basic form: Hitting others with sharp sticks. Western civilization is making a big push to remove the outlets and smother the agressive nature of our men. And the UK is ahead of the curve. Take the same young men, expect nothing of them, tell them that state will take care of them if they dont, and give them no responsabilities. Then take the older generation (still dreaming of lost empires and past glories) and tell them that the Crown will look after its subjects, who need not concern themselves with their own safety. A seducing proposition for many. Now combine the two things and see what you get.
And now back on topic. Gun control doesn't cause crime. Gun control tell the subjects of the regime that they are not to be trusted with their own lives and decissions and it also tells them the government is there to take care of them. Humans like security and comfort and most will believe the lie. Gun control creates victims in search for a crime, and the rest of the social fumes create the gangs and criminals to fleece the victims.
Critical has implied that he is a policeman. I assume he is not often robed, attacked, shot, spat on, while in uniform. Do we think that the street punks have respect for the uniform or fear? The reason why he is not mugged is because everything about him tells the criminals that he is not a victim. He is the wolf guarding the sheep. He has teeth. Lets face it. Criminals are lazy. If they were not they would be making piles of money working hard as opposed to little money risking their lives. And that risk is not that high when the whole culture prepares victims for them. But attacking the guard dogs, or even the loner dogs, is to much like work. They move on to easier prey.
Americans may be seem backward and simplistic to some Europeans, and certainly the beginings of the same social engineering are present here as well, but for the most part they still believe in fighting back, and the best way to do that is with a gun, but any other ways will do. Years ago my less the 5ft tall wife chased down a thug who snatched her purse. With her ridiculosly overpowered sports car. Had the cops not taken over (trying not to laugh at the whole scene) she might have even run down the over 6ft mean looking thug. Oddly she hasn't been bothered by any of the other thugs for the rest of the years we lived in that area. And I'm sure some of them still jump when they hear someone rev the engine of their Pontiac Transam.
Again, gun control doesnt create crime. It creates victims, and criminals know how to find them.
Loch
