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Charlton Heston Dies

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mistybear:

--- Quote --- Published on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 by The Chicago Sun Times
Challenge Our Violent Culture
by Jesse Jackson

?America is, by far, the most violent country in the world when measured against comparable, industrialized nations.? That?s the conclusion of a report by a conservative former California attorney general, Dan Lungren. Today, America is at war in Iraq, a war that the Bush administration began of its own choice, against a country that had not attacked us (and in fact did not threaten us). More than 3,500 soldiers and literally hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives, with millions more displaced. We are also at war in Afghanistan against the Taliban. We patrol Bosnia, have troops stationed on the border of North Korea. We have military forces in over 700 bases located in over 130 nations across the globe. Our fleets patrol the world?s seas. We are the GloboCop.

The United States has witnessed more than 4,000 riots from the 1600s to 1992, according to Paul Gilje in Rioting in America. Some 2 million people have been killed or suffered serious injury, which is an average of over 5,000 a year for nearly 400 years.

But the deaths and casualties in war are far outnumbered by the slaughter wrought by Americans killing Americans. Some 10 million Americans were victims of violent crimes in the 20th century. We have suffered more Americans killed by Americans than our combined losses in the Spanish American War, World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam.

Americans have more guns and suffer more gun crimes. We sell more guns and military equipment than any other country. Our military budget is nearly half the military budget of the entire world.

Violence isn?t simply part of our history; it is embedded in our culture: TV, video games, music. A culture of violence invades our lives, from our homes to our schools and work environments. Moreover, violence has become entertainment, glamorized in the behavior of real and fantasy heroes.
--- End quote ---

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/26/2093/

gmax:
In America you can open a bank account and as a bonus you get a free gun. Americans are continuously being brought up in a culture with a strong military background.

The two boys from the columbine shooting, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris bought their guns from a gun show and their bullets from Kmart.

Sandra:
The numbers of homicides in those statistics that you quoted Gmax wouldnt include the deaths of the burglars who were shot when they broke into peoples homes would they by any chance ?

If they did then that would definately make me feel a lot safer being in a country that allowed its citizens to keep guns at home.

gmax:
Would you prefer most of the burglars carried guns?, Is that the only reason you want a gun for the satisfaction of shooting a burglar?.
If your home was to be robbed your unlikely to be home, but if you were home you would be fast asleep or possibly woken with a gun
pointed at your head.
I would prefer to tackle a burglar not armed with a gun, i have a number of other weapons that would do the job nicely.

Sandra:
I would prefer to have the option as to whether I had a gun or not.
If burglars started carrying guns then presumably the police could catch them before they broke in anywhere as I would make carrying a gun outside of your home very hard to obtain a permit for.

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