The Politics Of Gene Wolfe

Lane Haygood · 18 Mar 2009, 08:41 · from 2009-March.txt.gz

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From: lhaygood at gmail.com (Lane Haygood)
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:41:20 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Politics Of Gene Wolfe
In-Reply-To: <49C0B268.1070807 at doubtfulpalace.com>
References: <722494.42734.qm at web32401.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
	<11050.67.142.130.31.1237358936.squirrel at brunians.org>
	<49C0AEA8.50408 at doubtfulpalace.com>
	<272706220903180128i71d1d77bre4b033f15fe413a4 at mail.gmail.com>
	<49C0B268.1070807 at doubtfulpalace.com>
Message-ID: <272706220903180141h5353283fmb40a74269faabbc0 at mail.gmail.com>

I know. My point is that ownership or non-ownership doesn't affect
violent crime rates.  This is one of the rare occasions where I think
both sides of the American gun control debate are off-base.
Preventing access to guns will likely stop firearm-killings from
happening, but I don't think it'd have a significant affect on the
overall violent crime rate.  If you walk home and catch your
significant other with another person, and you happen to grab a
kitchen knife before you get your gun, it doesn't matter.  Murder is
murder whether you do it with a gun or not.

So pointing to countries with low gun ownership rates and low murder
rates is pointing out a correlation but what is not likely a causal
relation.  If you look at other factors, I'm going to bet that you
find the countries with the lowest per capita murder rates have a high
general standard of living, significant federal support programs, a
well-balanced population, plenty of jobs and a relatively low-stress
living environment.  I'm also willing to bet that no significant
organized crime goes on in these countries/areas. Gun ownership (or
the lack thereof) is a non-issue.

-L.

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 3:35 AM, Tim Walters <walters at doubtfulpalace.com> wrote:
> Lane Haygood wrote:
>
>> The sort of
>> crime that gun ownership is thought to prevent (where the criminal
>> rationally considers that there is a greater risk to his or her own
>> life because of the victim's chance of owning a gun) isn't murder at
>> all. [and a bunch of other stuff that I agree with, and which explains ?>
>> quite well why I'm tepidly anti-gun-control]
>
> Quite so. But brunians' claim was that gun ownership reduces murder rates.
>
> --
>
> Tim Walters | The Doubtful Palace | http://doubtfulpalace.com
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