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| Via The Slab |
In Australia (population 22 million), there are 260 murders from all causes per year. That is less than 1 a day. In the US (population 311 million), there are 96 killings a day from guns alone, let alone knives, poison, strangulation. If America had the same murder rate as Oz, it would have just 10 murders a day. In Australia you have to get a licence to buy a gun, and they're not given out just like that. In the US any drongo can go into a gun shop and buy a substitute penis. Or several substitute penises. This article by Nick O'Malley (who is I believe an Ozzie like me) looks at why Americans are so enamoured of their guns.
But it's bizarre: the very same people who are happy to encourage, even enforce gun use, are as vehemently opposed to legalised dope and making controlled use of opiates legal (as was the British system for most of the 20th century). Yet the evidence is unambiguous: most crime is drug-related (so the police say, not trendy lefties), and not because of crazed loonies high on ice, but because desperate drug users steal to fund their habit, and drug lords kill to defend their money. The bloodstained slaughter in Mexico is clear evidence of the price this hypocrisy causes. If you needed any.
America is very odd.
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