Although, murder per capita is higher in the US, property crime and theft are considerably lower than the so-called civilized European countries including the Brits. So, in the US we care about the more important stuff like protecting our livelihood.
Did you just say that it's more important to protect your stuff than people's lives? I'm going to assume that you may have misspoke yourself, and didn't mean your comment to actually say that.
As others have pointed out, your stats are not quite accurate. Also, don't confuse
reported crime rates with
actual crime rates. These threads themselves have lots of examples where - in the US - people are advised to not bother going to police for petty property theft since the cops are too busy dealing with the more serious crimes. Which is a far cry from the UK where people can still go in and report petty property theft and be taken seriously.
...
In certain southwest states of the US, carrying a concealed weapon is permissible and in Arizona, an open weapon is permissible. Soon these states will allow a student to carry a concealed firearm to their college campus. That should help in reducing hazing and general violence against women,
Oh boy... that's going to end well. Hazing already involves the suspension of rational thinking by a group of hyped up teenagers, who have convinced themselves that doing something stupid is a good idea, often under the influence of alcohol. Now, lets arm them. And - their intended victim. And I thought
our legislators were pretty thick sometimes.
plus the folks, including the teachers, will be a lot more friendly.
Sarcasm, right?
What we need in the US are laws that force a high school requirement of marksmanship training. If everyone was well armed, we would not have half the problems we currently do.
And yet, in virtually every nation that has loose gun control, crime rates and murder rates go up, and in nations with strict gun control crime rates and murder rates go down. "Gun Control" is not the same as "Gun Ownership". The USA tends towards widespread gun ownership - and loose gun control. Other countries, like the Swiss, the UK and Canada,
allow gun ownership - but under tight
controls.
In the Swiss example, often cited to show that gun ownership doesn't actually mean murder crime rates, gun ownership is different. Handguns are not in wide circulation, and are heavily restricted. However rifles are assigned to people who have completed basic training in the army and are still part of the reserves. These rifles are rigorously inspected and controlled by the State, in home inspections, to make sure that they are stored properly. They are registered, and you need to register the ammunition you buy. Swiss can't just walk around with their rifles, they have to be either going to a shooting range or to their reserve unit on active duty. In other words, the reason Americans are supposedly given a constitutional right to bear arms does not apply at all in the Swiss model where the State can and does seize arms that don't meet it's requirements.
Plus the Swiss are now moving to reduce the numbers of guns held by the reserve because, ironically, they've decided that there are too many gun deaths at 1.42 per 100,1000 (The US rate is about 4x as high. Canada and the UK clock in at about 1/3 of the Swiss rate. And Australia sits at .07 per 100,00 people).
