Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

sorry, you deflected the "selfish" point, didn't you .. that aside, as we're
used to it from visitors here, lol .. here is one comment i'm down to ..

BlueMax .. 11 January 2011 11:35AM

But our violent crime rate is almost four times higher than the US. Camden is worse than Detroit!

That's where the stats become complex, when you move from "murder rate" to "violent crime" and compare Britain with the US.

What's your source for the "almost four times higher" claim? I know a few years ago the US National Rifle Association tried the same claim.

Then, when their stats were analysed, it was discovered that wildly different crime reporting methods were being used and, once a level playing field was established, UK violent crime rates turned out to be half that of the US.

So the source of your stats, to back your "almost four times higher" claim, is key. Can you recall your source?

But whatever the comparative stats for violent, non-lethal, crime, we're still left with a US murder rate 4-5 times high than the UK.

Plus the generalised fear in which US citizens must live their lives. It's a terrible thing to go about one's daily life in fear of getting shot. 99.9% of Britons are free of that fear. It's a blessed freedom.

It's ironic that the "Land of the Free" lives in such fear. I worked for many year with nice Yanks in London -
some very right-wing gun owners among them and, without exception, they loved that aspect of living in Britain.

But no way would they give up their guns at home in America! They were, effectively, gun addicts, tormented by their own Constitutionally-protected addiction."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/10/gun-crime-us-state#start-of-comments

it's about cursor 5cm from the bottom on that link .. think he's a Londoner ..