tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post4143863460910830739..comments2024-03-28T16:25:19.526-04:00Comments on Grim's Hall: A Moment of ClarityGrimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-63220376065608494982015-12-06T10:36:50.872-05:002015-12-06T10:36:50.872-05:00Just because the Pax Americana is dead, doesn'...Just because the Pax Americana is dead, doesn't mean vengeance cannot be obtained on all the enemies of humanity. Detonating the entire planetary nuclear arsenal would do it, more or less.Ymar Sakarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-54076596128611733312015-12-04T23:22:16.332-05:002015-12-04T23:22:16.332-05:00Realistically, a gun control plan that has any hop...<b>Realistically, a gun control plan that has any hope of getting us down to European levels of violence is going to mean taking a huge number of guns away from a huge number of gun owners.</b><br /><br />The problem with this statement is that there is a fair amount of variation in both gun possession and in murder rate in Europe. There are a number of European countries that have higher murder rates than the US.<br /><br /><br />Murder Rate per 100,000<br />Russia 9.0<br />Lithuania 6.7<br />Albania 5<br />Latvia 4.7<br />US 3.8<br /><br />You mean like THOSE European murder levels?<br />Not only is there a fair amount of variation in murder rate in Europe, there is also a fair amount of variation in gun possession. While no European countries have gun possession rates as high as the US, many have possession rates substantially higher than, e.g., Great Britain, which is the poster child for anti-gun people in the US.<br /><br />nation Guns per Capita<br />Serbia 69.7<br />Switzerland 45.7<br />Sweden 31.6<br />Norway 31.3<br />France 31.2<br />Austria 30.4<br />Iceland 30.3<br />Germany 30.3<br />Finland 29.1<br />Montenegro 23.1<br />Greece 22.5<br />Croatia 21.7<br />Latvia 19<br />Russia 8.9<br /><br />By comparison: United Kingdom 6.6<br /><br />And high gun possession doesn't necessarily mean high murder rate in Europe, or vice versa. Russia has the highest murder rate in Europe, but it is 24th in gun possession. <br /><br />Nation Murder Rate<br />Serbia 1.2<br />Switzerland 0.6<br />Sweden 0.7<br />Norway 2.2<br />France 1<br /><br /><br />When you do a correlation of murder rate and per capita gun possession for the 38 countries in Europe for which you have data for both indices, you get -.32. Which shows a negative correlation between gun possession and murder in Europe. Not what the pundits believe the narrative is. <br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_countryGringonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-47656574679939048232015-12-04T12:39:47.828-05:002015-12-04T12:39:47.828-05:00This country may be lost. So be it. Empires come a...This country may be lost. So be it. Empires come and go, the causes have been noted many times over the millennia.<br /> <br /> What really bothers me is this- Western Civilization itself may be lost- are we close to seeing the Library at Alexandria burned once more?(metaphorically speaking) We may be close to losing the single greatest achievement in human history. <br />Are the Vandals going to trash the Uffizzi? And the Louvre? They are no different than Bamiyan or Palmyra to the horde. Will they smash the Hadron collider? Will we see heretics once again on the rack?<br /> The stakes in what we are engaged in are far greater than is commonly recognized.ravennoreply@blogger.com