In a message dated 7/5/98 2:00:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time, EvMick@aol.com writes:
<< > I don't think
> that NYC has five murders per every hundred thousand.
You don't?>>
Do the math. Five murders per very hundred thousand would be 50 murder per every million which would be 400 murders annually in NYC. I think that it's actually lower than that, although I could be wrong.
<<I've noticed that some memes have a very...VERY strong hold. Relegious
memes
for example...or the anti-gun meme. Facts make very little impression on
those who are infected by that meme. >>
So your strategy is to to exchange issue-oriented arguments for psychological explanations of why others do not agree with those arguments? It'll certainly make for a messy and pointless discussion.
<< For example...it has already been metioned that when gun profliferation
increases among the populace as a whole that violent crimes decrease. This is
documented...repeatable...and is not subject to doubt. The phrase "An armed
society is a polite society"...has basis in fact. It happens every time.
Well
this is in contradiction to the antigun meme...so it gets ignored.>>
Oh, I've heard that mentioned for some time now. I've also had people point to examples in foreign countries where guns aren't so easily available and the number of murders is almost mind-boggingly less. Noting the widespread proliferation of firearms amongst this population as compared to many foreign populations, one could easily thereby provide a counterexample to the above. Other methods would be to point out that NYC has the toughest gun control laws and a declining crime rate that is the envy of American cities. Now of course you'd say that the decline has more to do with social factors than gun control laws. And of course that's exactly what a gun-control advocate would say in response to your examples.
My point here, since I really do not want to become entangled in a long, detailed, gun-control debate, is that the facts simply are NOT clear, and that to claim that gun-control advocates are simply caught up in a meme is to look at the issue with a very narrow frame of mind.
<< "Don't bother me with facts...my mind is made up".>>
See above.
Andrew