Family calls shooting of car thief ‘senseless’

[Lukie]

I think its hard to compare Central America with Europe. They may ban guns, but I don't think they have the political or police clout to enforce it, just look at Mexico (I think guns are banned???).

Over here if you're caught with a gun you go to prison for a long time.

My uncle is a farmer and his neighbor threatened to shoot him over some farming dispute, very heat of the moment (when I say threatened I mean he said along the lines of "You should get a gun shoved up your arse"). Neighbor got a suspended prison sentence and is banned from ever holding a gun licence.

Out of interest Lukie where do you stand on guns? Do you own one? You seem like a v intelligent and measured guy, so I'd be interested.

On a side note, I think we in Britain think of US as having the same sort of views as us because you speak the Engrish, but I think culturally and politically we're miles apart!

Thanks for the compliment.

If you can't compare crime stats between Central America and Europe, then you shouldn't be able to compare crime stats between Europe and the US, or US and Central America. Each has its own unique demographics, socioeconomics, and other considerations. As a generality it seems like the US is in the middle both in wealth disparity and crime, so directly comparing violent crime rates vs gun ownership seems unfair. Also it's one thing to start from a position where there guns are very heavily regulated and not accessible. Compare that to a scenario where there is already roughly 1 gun per person floating around.

I don't think what if anything I own really matters, but I don't live or work in a rough neighborhood, don't make myself a target or leave much valuable stuff laying around, and just generally live a low risk lifestyle. We'll say that my defense needs are not very high. I would feel a lot differently if I worked in the jewelry business or had a wife and kids to protect.

I consider myself to be fairly pro-gun. In any other country I would definitely be pro-gun, but the paradigm has shifted so much in this country and there are some types out there that I just can't support. I could go into more detail if you want but I went over some of the topics earlier in the thread.

[d0zer]

If you can't compare crime stats between Central America and Europe, then you shouldn't be able to compare crime stats between Europe and the US, or US and Central America. Each has its own unique demographics, socioeconomics, and other considerations

The difference is that western europe and america are both considered industrialized, "first-world" nations, and central/south america is either third-world or newly industrialized.

America is interesting because it's more 'capitalist' and less 'socialist' than the rest of the first-world, and one of the apparent byproducts of that is more socio-economic variability. More extreme rich, and more extreme poor, which will inevitably pad the crime stats.