Monday, August 16, 2010

We're Not That Bad

Fox News reports on an incident which interrupted the women's baseball championship. Where did this take place? Caracas, Venezuela.

Play in the Women's Baseball World Cup was suspended on Saturday after a stray bullet struck a Hong Kong player in the lower leg during competition on Friday.

The shooting occurred while the Hong Kong team was playing the Netherlands in a stadium at the Fort Tiuna military base, The Canadian Press said. It wasn't clear from where the bullet was fired.

What do you think? Compared to them, we're pretty civilized, wouldn't you say? Of course, I realize the easy access and proliferation of guns in places like Caracas has nothing to do with it. Same as in the U.S., right? Well, how then do you explain the differences between high gun states and low gun states with regards gun violence?

Please leave a comment.

9 comments:

  1. So, really, what is the point here?


    A woman was hit with what is described as a stray bullet, and they have no idea where the bullet came from.

    There could be dozens of reasons why this happened, up to and including that it had been done on purpose, with the intention of intimidating the Hong Kong players and causing them to leave the tourney.

    So, you take one example out of Caracas, and use it to show how dangerous a place it is (which I'm not denying), but you're going to place blame on the guns and the availability of guns.

    I think it's waaaaaaayyy to earlier to be doing that, MikeB. I realize that plan A for you is "blame the gun" and plan B is "refer to plan A" but how about you admit that there could be quite a few other issues at play here?

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  2. Comparing the United States to less developed countries like venezuela is a popular tactic now being employed by the conservatives in america. instead of comparing the U.S. to countries other highly developed countries in the OECD, Rand Paul and other GOP party candidates are comparing the US to poorer less developed countries.

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  3. "Comparing the United States to less developed countries like venezuela is a popular tactic now being employed by the conservatives in america. instead of comparing the U.S. to countries other highly developed countries in the OECD, Rand Paul and other GOP party candidates are comparing the US to poorer less developed countries."

    You mean highly developed countries like Mexico and Chile?

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  4. "Comparing the United States to less developed countries like venezuela is a popular tactic now being employed by the conservatives..."


    Wait, are you calling MikeB a conservative??

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  5. ok good point. A country ranking will have to depend on the specific topic. Some of the most popular country rankings I often refer to are democracy level, press freedom, corruption, and the HDI.

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  6. With the recent incredible Columbian airline survival rate, it's clear we need to model our entire aircraft infrastructure on theirs.

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  7. I say because Venezuela is awash with guns, a thing like this is more likely to happen than in say, the U.K.

    Random gun violence is more likely to happen in Louisiana than in Hawaii. Same thing.

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  8. How can Venezuela be awash in guns? They have common sense gun laws.

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  9. And ice cream is more likely to be found in a grocery store than a hardware store.

    The fact that guns might be available in the area certainly does mean that "gun violence" is more likely than not. Overall violence, however, generally goes up by removing guns.

    Removing the guns only disarms those who would fight back, but it doesn't stop the determined criminals from getting them, and it doesn't stop crime.

    The violent people who cause the violence are still capable of causing violence without guns.

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