At 03:42 PM 7/4/98 EDT, Andrew <VirgilT7@aol.com> wrote:
><< Don't shut up about it! I believe I read in either Benson's _The
>Enterprise of
> Law_ or Friedman's _The Machinery of Freedom_ that Dodge City's worse
> year had only five murders. That's hardly material for one episode of "Gun
> Smoke" -- much less a year in highly gun controlled New York City.:)
> >>
>
>That's five murders for, what, a population of less than 2000? I don't think
>that NYC has five murders per every hundred thousand.
True enough, though to be fair, we'd also have to look at guns possessed per unit of population too. Also, the point is that Dodge City just was not as violent during the late 1800s as people tend to think it was. Until we have reliable stats on it, we should not use it as an epitaph to the Second Amendment.
A question: would you rather live in a society which is more violent but freer
(in terms of choices you can make about living your life) or one which is less
violent but also less free (in terms of ditto)? I tend to think the freer a
society is, in general, the less violent it will be -- if one factors in
government
violence too. (How many people were gunned down by cops in the US this
year, under questionable circumstances? Howw many people were jailed,
etc. under ditto?)
Cheers!
Daniel