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Originally posted by Yorick:
As a resident of New York City, I think the laws of NYC are more my business than yours, and I think I'm perfectly entitled to voice my support for gun controls in a city that, were it filled with guns, would be a much more dangerous jungle than it already can be.
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That's pure speculation... Never in United States history has there ever been proven a positive correlation between the proliferation of firearms and the number of gun deaths. Take Florida and Pennsylvania as absolute counter-examples to that point, where Right-To-Carry is seriously considered as the independant variable in their (much sharper than the national average) reduction in crime rates after adoption of those laws. What's more, NYC's bullshit handgun control laws (which, by the way, don't work, and have never actually worked) are making it hard for
me in Upstate New York, a law-abiding, sane, well-behaved and orderly citizen of no criminal history whatsoever, to obtain a pistol, not necessarily for personal protection, but just obtaining a pistol in and of itself is hard up here, because of NYC's laws... Besides, if you think the big apple is bad now, you should have seen it before Rudy Guiliani came along, back in the days of LaGuardia, porno theatres and needle park...
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My opinions about Bowling for Columbine have been formulated from the time I've spent in the 20 states of the USA I've been in over the last 3 years, and also from canvassing opinions from the number of Americans I watched the film with.
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But I do wonder... How could you get such a one-sided view of a nation like this one, with such diverse opinions and histories coming together, might it be that the people who voluntarily watched the film might already have had some idea of what it was about, and were merely wanting to hear what they already believed? Also, consider the factual inconsistency of the film itself when deciding how to conclude on the matter.
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Unlike yourself, I am living in the nation I am speculating about, you have never stepped foot in my country.
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Yes, and you've gotten this one all wrong, so I'd say I'm free to speculate all I like about yours or anyone elses, as it's clear by your example that going places doesn't tell you that much about them, in all honesty...
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The time when I was mugged in NYC, there was no violence, and I actually got my wallet back, with nothing taken from it. Had I pulled a gun, or attempted a violent response, someone would have gotten hurt or killed.
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If you pulled a gun, there was a 1 in 50 chance the thing would have even been fired, and even then, there's a roughly 90 percent chance it would have been a warning shot, and no one would have been hurt. If you attempt a violent response, if you resist, you stand a chance of 15-18%, depending on where you are, and the situation, of being killed. Compared to complicity, which merits 20-30% (averaging in at about 24%, but metropolitan numbers are lumped into rural numbers) death averages.
Violence is not a way of life, it is not the best way, usually, but sometimes, it is the only way. If you were standing in the street with
your child, taking photographs of buildings (something I'll do when I get down to NYC) or just scoping out the scenery like ordinary fellows do, and someone grabs them, and demands that you turn over your wallet?
Okay, you give him your wallet, and he lets your kid go? What would you do then?
Or, you give him your wallet and he kills your kid and runs like the blazes? Consider all possible sub-scenarios in that situation, and understand