US police kill more than two people a day, report suggests

[Pumicestone]

...slaves were hidden and transported to Canada to freedom

One hundred fifty years ago. What has that got to do with today?

And yet, when I speak of American aggression and militarism "in the last half century", the vigilant 'Warrior' responds with

Oh, yeah, sure we all know what a long and brilliant history of peace and rationality Europe has.[/sarcasm]

Newsflash ! I am an Australian (< see the little flag?). Never been to Europe. My parents have never been to Europe.
A bit hard to see the relevance ..... mate !

 

[Viligant_Warrior]

And yet, when I speak of American aggression and militarism "in the last half century", the vigilant 'Warrior' responds with...

You seem terribly confused. You defend your remark here, and then ...

Newsflash ! I am an Australian (< see the little flag?). Never been to Europe. My parents have never been to Europe.

... deny it's relevance with that comment. Yes, I see the little flag. So now you also deny Australia's connection to Europe through the colonization of the continent by Great Britain? And as AgeofKnowledge said, how was that great empire where "the sun never sets" built? Lottery? Luck of the draw?

A bit hard to see the relevance ..... mate !

Only if you're willfully blind. By the way, where's that blizzard of statistics and links you promised? And why, out of a a post that quoted yours in nine different segments, responding to each one, can you only manage to reply to one of them, and then try to nitpick a post not even addressed to you, assuming you've "refuted" me?

As someone just said, "a bit hard to see the relevance .... mate!" Sans smiley face.

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

Reading posts like this one of yours is a waste of time.

If you want to live in a fog of ignorance and denial ember that's your choice but when you make false assertions, people who don't will refute them despite your engaging in ad hominem against them when they do.

It's because they care more about the truth than you obviously do. You're 41, when are you going to grow up?

oh yeah right...you are the statistics guy from that other thread who thinks all women are out to get you

stuffy! good on you...statistics can't talk back so you get the last word

waste of time

 

[Pumicestone]

Hmmmmm - I see I'm going to have to serve this up in bite-size chunks.

When Ember mentioned slaves fleeing to Canada for freedom, you reckoned it was irrelevant because it occurred '150 years ago'.
When I mention recent, contemporary American events, you veer off on some tangent about European history ???

 

[tourist]

I would love for nothing more than violence to disappear, but unfortunately this isn't going to happen. The UK did away with guns and yet they still have violent crimes with knives, clubs etc... A criminal will find what they need to do their evil.

This is true. Typically, in the middle-east, rocks are used as weapons.

 

[Viligant_Warrior]

Hmmmmm - I see I'm going to have to serve this up in bite-size chunks.

When Ember mentioned slaves fleeing to Canada for freedom, you reckoned it was irrelevant because it occurred '150 years ago'.
When I mention recent, contemporary American events, you veer off on some tangent about European history ???

You still can't make the connection that Australia is closely tied to European history? That you cannot separate your Australian citizenship from the violence, bloodshed, and upheaval that enabled Great Britain to settle your continent? Even after I explained it to you?

What do you think, that God teleported you all to the island-continent and magically disconnected you from your British and Anglo-Saxon heritage?

Or, more likely, you're still struggling to wrap your head around an answer that you assume will sound intelligent. An effort at which you will utterly fail, I might add.

 

[Shadow-THI]

And what is your point? People can throw out statistics all day long but if you have never worked in Law Enforcement you really have no clue what you are talking about. Yes there are dirty cops that need to be fired or even prosecuted for what they have done, but I can pretty much guarantee that the majority aren't acting in a criminal behavior.

Could not have said if better myself.

 

[Shadow-THI]

If one ever wants to start an active thread, just mention gun-deaths or gun-control if there are Yanks around.
They'll come out of the woodwork to defend the indefensible because it is a sick, gun-crazy society for whom violence is endemic.

Sure, there are millions of 'gunless', peace-loving Americans.
But somehow they do not seem to prevail.

The National Rifle Association has enormous political clout and gun-lovers are passionate about their 'right to bear arms'.

U.S. gun deaths - particularly amongst young people - per 100,000 population - are many, many times that of any civilized country.

"This year will go down in history, for the first time a civilized nation has full gun registration, our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future." - Adolph Hitler - 1935

 

[Pumicestone]

OK - bottom line.

Homicides per 100,000 in the USA (U.S. Census Bureau) 5.1
Gun deaths " " " " 3.5
FastStats - Homicide


In Australia per 100,000 homicides 1.24
by gun 0.18
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/australia
(University of Sydney)


those percentages might not seem much until you translate them to actual killings
homicides in the U.S. 16,000+
In Australia 260

Whatever the reason, I know where I prefer to live.


BTW -We've lived in this house for 25 years - never yet locked a door or a window. Wouldn't know where to find the keys.

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

Australia's population as of 2013: 23,319,400
Actual number of homicides for 2013: 430

430 divided by 23,319,400 = 1.84

USA's population as of 2013: 316,497,531
Actual number of homicides for 2013: 14,196

14,196 divided by 316,497,531 = 4.48

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 2013 Global Study on Homicide (10.3 mb download! [skip to page 22]).

Note that Australia's homicide rate declined from 1.9 in 2000 to 1.1 in 2012 and then skyrocketed to 1.84 in 2013. The USA's homicide rate declined from 5.5 in 2000 to 4.7 in 2012 and continued to decrease to 4.48 in 2013. The global average homicide rate was 6.2 in 2012. Both Australia and the U.S. were well below the global homicide average for all years studied.

 

[royalscot]

"This year will go down in history, for the first time a civilized nation has full gun registration, our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future." - Adolph Hitler - 1935

this 2015, and death waits, for no mans idea, take away your guns, and what have you got. safer streets. if everyone complies to treat each other in a way, you would like to be treated your self. on the other hand, did adolph not take pills to end his life, he must have been worried about the streets not being safe to walk on ,(the pills being taken with adolph would be est around 1944- 1945 etc, history, answered back with quotes from history lol) any way , take away arms and your just an other brick in the wall.

 

[Pumicestone]

Australia's population as of 2013: 23,319,400
Actual number of homicides for 2013: 430

USA's population as of 2013: 316,497,531
Actual number of homicides for 2013: 14,196

OK Age, Let's go with your figures.

The USA has 13.6 times the population of Australia.

Therefore, if we were equally "civilized", the homicides in the USA would be 430 X 13.6 = 5,848.
But it's not. It's 2.4 TIMES that.

Why do you think this is so ?

(a) Americans in general are two-and-a-half times more violent ?
(b) every man and his dog have guns ?
(c) some other reason ?

 

[Viligant_Warrior]

[ . . . ] Why do you think this is so ?

(a) Americans in general are two-and-a-half times more violent ?
(b) every man and his dog have guns ?
(c) some other reason ?

Your question has an assumption built into it, so let's begin with the raw facts. Here is the Wikipedia page on international homicide rates: List of countries by intentional homicide rate. Data comes from a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) study.

The UNODC stratifies countries into six groups and finds an average global homicide rate bouncing around in the 6.9 to 7.6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Certainly countries like Columbia, Uganda, and Guatamala are expected to have high murder rates. But the US homicide rate is 4.2 per 100k inhabitants, which is in the 3rd of six categories, below the average. Mexico, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa all have dramatically higher murder rates than the US.

So, I would ask you, why do you choose to believe something that is patently false, namely that limiting or outright banning guns solves the problem?

Have you seen this?

Obviously the answer to the question over the chart is "no." How about Australia's gun buyback program and other efforts to limit firearms access?

THE AUSTRALIAN FIREARMS BUYBACK AND ITS EFFECT ON GUN DEATHS
This paper takes a closer look at the effects of the NFA on gun deaths. Using a battery of structural break tests, there is little evidence to suggest that it had any significant effects on firearm homicides and suicides. In addition,there also does not appear to be any substitution effects—that reduced access to firearms may have led those bent on committing homicide or suicide to use alternative methods.

So much for your arguments there.

You might also be interested in knowing that England and Wales manage to keep firearms deaths low statistically, but not actually. They exclude any cases which do not result in conviction, or where the person is not prosecuted on grounds of self-defense or otherwise. In the U.S. we count everything as a "gun death," including self-defense. If we handled our stats as does England and Wales, we'd have the lowest gun-death rate in the world, since our arrest-and-conviction rate is about 97%.

Your question is disingenuous. Your opinion is based on spoon-fed lies from the liberal media.

 

[Pumicestone]

The old story about statistics and lies ?
I Googled a d came up with some figures.

Age of Knowledge produced some which made the Yanks look better.
So I happily used those.
Now you come up with some which are different again.

Although, nothing which seems to counter the fact that the US apparently has two and a half times the number of homicides per head of population

 

[jennymae]

Well, the American society is significantly different from the Australian. First off all you need to find out who be the people killing others and who are the ones getting killed. After having that sorted out you will know a lot more about how things are in the US.

 

[Pumicestone]

Well, the American society is significantly different from the Australian.

Thank God for that !

Whatever the reasons, the bottom line is that my chances of becoming a victim of homicide are two-and-a-half times greater in the Grand Ole USA.

 

[jennymae]

Thank God for that !

Whatever the reasons, the bottom line is that my chances of becoming a victim of homicide are two-and-a-half times greater in the Grand Ole USA.

That is depending on where you are in the US. Where I'm from, rural place down south, I dont think theres been a homicide for decades, folks dont lock their doors either. I think people are paying too much attention to certain areas in some of the big cities where things are not working so well...

 

[Mitspa]

Thank God for that !

Whatever the reasons, the bottom line is that my chances of becoming a victim of homicide are two-and-a-half times greater in the Grand Ole USA.

Twice as likely to be bitten by a snake... lol

and the fact is that the right to own a gun in the USA has made us strong and protected our Republic and all those around the world.

 

[breno785au]

Thank God for that !

Whatever the reasons, the bottom line is that my chances of becoming a victim of homicide are two-and-a-half times greater in the Grand Ole USA.

It's because we have koalas. Just be like them and chill out man ☺

 

[Viligant_Warrior]

Although, nothing which seems to counter the fact that the US apparently has two and a half times the number of homicides per head of population

A patently false statement that directly contradicts not only what I said, but also what AoK said.

The truth is out there, you just don't want to believe it.