[geeks] its what you carry with you

[Mike Meredith]

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 11:56:54 -0400, Ross Lonstein wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 11, 2004 at 12:20:23AM +1000, Scott Howard wrote:
> > I don't agree with a lot of the laws like this they have bought in
> > in Australia, but at the end of the day it's hard to disagree with
> > the numbers.
>         [snip]
> 
> As I recall from my visit there last year, your national population is
> a bit less than 20 million people; less than the population of the New
> York City metro region in an area only slightly smaller than the 48
> contiguous states.
> 
> Draw your own conclusions about those numbers.

I doubt it's as simple as that. For a start most Australians live in
cities or suburbs and so live in similar population densities to most
USians. And the population of the EU is far greater than the US, but has
a far lower homicide rate.

And the high homicide rate in the US isn't simply down to the lack of
total gun control either. There are a number of countries in Europe with
widespread gun ownership that have very similar homicide rates to other
countries in Europe with very low levels of gun ownership. If every gun
in the US disappeared overnight it would still have a higher homicide
rate than most European countries ... assuming that those deprived of a
gun don't pick up a knife or use their hands.