If I lived in a city or country where guns were so ubiquitous that you could get killed in the crossfire of rival gangs shooting at each other, I'd move to a more civilized place. A place with fewer guns, and therefore lower risk of being shot. Having a gun under my pillow would not save me from being struck by a stay bullet in my sleep - it would just be one more item a thief with malicious intent could steal and add to his own arsenal.
Blaming the MASSIVE gun death statistics in the US on "demographics" is like talking about anything but the elephant in the room. You're dying at 8 times Canada's rate of gun death because your country is chock full of guns you can conceal on your person. You think we don't have gangs and crappy neighborhoods in Canada? We do. Loads of them. But you're not going to get caught in the crossfire of a knife fight. Those of the criminal element that do have guns are pretty cautious about using them, for fear of losing them and not being able to easily get more.
By the way, we can still get guns here. They're for shooting dinner, but they work just fine for protecting your home against burglars if that's what you're into, and you pretty much always know who's got one on their person.
My intentions were not to paint a picture of guns being ubiquitous in the United States. Clearly, they aren't, considering the number of people who are anti-gun violence and anti-gun ownership.
I wasn't pulling that scenario out of my ***. There are parts of Norfolk and Newport News (VA) that are less safe for living, primarily attributable to drugs and relatable violence. That type of scenario certainly doesn't happen everyday, though.
I wanted to convey to you the differences in relatablility. Often, in debate, you insist on comparing American issues to Canadian issues, when our culture and demographical concerns can be quite different.
Don't simplify as it relates to the underpriviliged. Those who live in crime infested areas are typically imbedded in horrible cycles of dependence, themselves. If you live below or at the poverty level, it's unlikely that you can up and leave to find greener, safer pastures. Unfortunately, in our country, our underpriviliged areas are often synonymous with our more crime ridden areas.
Alceste, poverty, drug abuse, lack of education and cultural attitudes direclty correlate to crime in the United States.
You hear about the school shootings which may happen in suburbia to seemingly normal people in normal communities and gun violence does happen everywhere. IN addition to the given - mental disturbances and illnesses behind such tragedy - demographics do play a direct role in crime and violence in the United States.
This is what makes Detroit a more violent place vs. my own city. This is what makes New York a more violent place over my own city. Population, demographics, culture - all of this has an impact on crime.
As diverse as your country is - America is even moreso and we can't compare your country's demographics to our own. Honestly - it's like comparing apples to oranges.
Still, statistically, more people die each year in the US via automobile than via gun violence. That has yet to change, last I checked...
