Now if i lived in America with the amount of illegal guns in the country i might think differently. Are their so many illegal firearms in circulation because of the liberal gun laws. And is felling the need to carry a firearm the price you pay for having such liberal firearms laws.
Interesting questions!
Away from the large cities, I'm sure Americans are safer than people in most European countries. Most of our violent crime is concentrated in urban areas, and a huge proportion of criminals' victims are themselves criminals, some actively involved in crime at the times of their deaths, some not. Even in the urban areas, a heavily disproportionate quantity of violent crime occurs in areas known to be frequented by criminals rather than at random or in so-called "better" neighborhoods. America's crime tallies look awful; looked at in any detail, however, they're horrendously awful
in places, yet astoundingly low elsewhere.
What causes that? This may seem childishly simple, but it's true: criminals cause crime. The largest "blocks," call them, of criminals are young urban gangsters, many involved one way or another in the narcotics trade, and independent criminals, most likewise involved one way or another in the narcotics trade. They prey upon the poor, the young, the elderly, the defenseless, and of course, one another.
American "liberal" firearms laws do, indeed, mean there are millions of guns here; the crux of the matter, however, has far less to do with those laws than laws pertaining to criminals. I don't mean to say crime pays here, because it's still a losing proposition; I do mean to say, by contrast, it's punished at once infrequently, irregularly, and not very hard. Below the age of 18, gangsters need to commit murders before they run much risk of being locked up. Adult criminals sometimes receive no sentences and trivial fines, sometimes receive longer sentences, but those are invariably shortened. We don't exactly
reward crime; conversely, most criminals don't have much to fear from apprehension; they also receive free legal counsel the rest of us pick up the tab for, and prisons include all manner of recreational activities.
I've been carrying one gun or another daily the past ten years. I've been in precisely no danger that entire time. Could I be in danger? Yes, but in my part of rural Colorado, the odds are heavily in favor of honest citizens rather than criminals. I carry partly for the sake of exercising a vital, all too often neglected, partly for the same reason I keep a spare tire in my car and fire extinguishers and first aid kids in car and house: it costs almost nothing, and could prove useful.
Come on over some time, eh, manta49?
