Guns: are they a cultural symbol for the USA?
Guns in the U.S.: The perception of guns in the U.S. is very different from the UN or Europe. If you look at the statistics, there are hundreds of people killed by guns annualy in the U.S. because it‘s legal to have a gun. It’s common that people can go and buy a gun in the store next door and nobody would ask them any question as in the Czech republic for example. Because bearing arms is your citizen’s right and the protection against infringement of this right is addressed in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
I don’t understand the american logic. They appreciate the safety much more than freedoom (they call freedom something very different than european people) if you consider for example The Patriotic Act. For me, it sounds tautologic – you have the right to bear a gun and use it for your self-defense (it‘s your freedom choice) and you feel very anxious about other people beacuse. It’s called „the security dilemma“ in international relations and it means – „I feel very anxious about you so I will protect by developing more advanced systems to destroy you. You will do the same and that’s how we act..“ And now we come to very interesting question: Do Firearms Kill More People (in the home) Than They Save (in public places)? Because the abuse of guns is very common..And the argument „consider how many people died in cars“ is very stupid – so we should we increase the numer of Miller people?
There is very popular website in the U.S., www.nra.org, which fights against the U.N.ban on bearing guns and which is very proud of being the premier firearms education organization in the world!! Also if you look at the American kinematography, every James Bond and these kind of movies are based on „strong menship involving fast car, nice blonde and a gun“.
Statistics:
- In fact, more children -- children-- have been killed by guns in the past 25 years than the total number of American fatalities in all wars of the past five decades (I recommend you the Article „Some People Love Guns. Why Should the Rest of Us Be Targets?“ by Jonathan Safran Foer (on-line in http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/20/AR2007042001980.html).
- There is a positive correlation between homicide rates and availability of guns in developed nations. (Hemenway and Miller, 2000). (on-line http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=do_firearms_kill_more_people_in_the_home&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&showComments=1).
- Great Britain: According to government statistics, the number of people killed by guns has essentially stayed the same, with dips and spikes, as before the 1997 gun control laws went into effect: There were 55 shooting deaths in 1995 and 50 last year in England and Wales. By comparison, there were 137 fatal shootings in the District of Columbia last year.
The number of crimes in which a handgun was used in England and Wales has risen from 299 in 1995 to 1,024 last year. Offenses committed with all types of firearms, including air guns, have also increased (http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2007/04/british_guns.html).
- I very recommend you to look at the http://www.rileyhospital.org/attachments/FirearmStats.pdf!! For example, 32 436 Americans were killed with firearms in 1997. For comparsion, 58 148 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War.
- Accurate figures on firearms are scarce, but there are an estimated 200 million guns in circulation in the US, a country with a population of about 300 million. According to a Harris poll conducted in 2001, approximately 39% of all American households own at least one gun (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6562529.stm).
- Statistically, Americans use guns to kill each other far more than just about any other society in the world.
Kristyna
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Hello Krystina, Nice post overall. As an American I am asked this question on a regular basis. Essentially in the small town where I lived prior to being in Brno, most all of my neighbors had guns, hunting rifles or pistols. No one in the 20 years I lived in a town of 1100 were ever accidently shot, killed nor were there crimes committed with guns in our area. In the nearby area, occasionally there were issues with guns, but primarily in the larger cities of Austin and San Antonio. Since I know of one foreigner who was mugged in Prague by someone with a gun, I am not sure how the statistics actually hold up. So yes, in Rural America, almost every family owns a gun, but these statistics are normally not properly reflected in regards to crime.
The major issue in the US in my opinion is that of the concept of parole. Parole does not go through the legal system. It is a group of people who decide to let this person out who are not part of the legal system. Since it is a known fact that 80% of all crime is by repeat offenders, the concept of parole does not work and should be abolished. I believe this would have more impact on the US statistics related to guns than what anti-gun activists want to believe.
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