Saturday, December 25, 2010

Violence and Gun Control: Facts Which Europeans and American Leftists Conveniently Ignore

In the readers' section of Mark Frauenfelder's Boing-Boing article on shotgun safety, Instapundit notes the "the wussy comments from Brits. Pathetic."

As a dual national (Danish-American) living in Europe, I am no longer surprised by the Euros' (self-serving) superior attitude to the United States, as well as that of their leftist American enablers.

When I am told of how superior Europe's gun control, and its (allegedly) attendant lack of guns and its (allegedly) attendant lack of violence, are to all that mindless violence in the United States, I ask: "Do you mean, in an American city such as… Marseille? Or an American city such as… Bastia? Or an American city such as… Palermo?"

For a gun-free zone like Europe, France for one has recently seen a plethora of crimes with automatic pistols, Kalashnikovs, and explosives.

Oh! say the Euros (after a few seconds' thought — they have to process this, you understand), but those murders are committed by gangsters! Those are the Mafia, you see! Suggesting that — by some strange, and immutable, natural law of the universe, or by some kind of honor amongst thieves that is never broken by any individual, not a single one — the mobsters (or those in Europe, at least) never use violence upon your average, honest citizen; they only commit violence amongst themselves!

Note to fairy tale-believing Europeans: the main target of most criminals in most countries is indeed the honest, common (hopefully defenseless, peaceful, and non-violent) citizen (rich or otherwise), not other criminals. Having said that, it turns out that much of the gun violence in the United States is also between criminals.

It is also important to know what is being compared: (open-society) America, unlike (closed- — or more-closed- — society) Europe, allows for many more figures than Europe does; notably, it allows for a full slew of statistics.

Because the killed-by-firearms statistics, notably, are given as is — as figures with no explanation as to the context of the shootings (an honest citizen gunned down by a mugger? a schoolboy riddled with pellet wounds by accident? one drug addict shot in the back by another? an intruder killed by a grandmother defending herself?) — unthinking Europeans and their (just-as-unthinking-and-just-as-ready-to-jump-to-(self-serving)-conclusions) American enablers imagine shooting by firearms to be endemic throughout American society — an indelible aspect of American life — and go around parroting phrases such as "(Any and all) Americans are always ready to shoot one another!" while mocking the (artificial) caricatures of "people [living] with … constant fear in their lives".

Meanwhile, the Europeans' own (statistics-deficient) killings are always to be accompanied by some sort of qualifier which minimizes the deeds (intra-mob violence, etc)… Notice the bemused witness of a bank robbery in the TV news report who describes the "war scenes" in Seine-Saint-Denis (00:33) as "unrealistic, it's like being in an American [!!] movie."

From my Everyday Meetings with Common Europeans series, meet the Spanish artist who would not go to America:
I was having una conversación with a Catalan artist during a weekend in Barcelona, when he told me he would never go to los Estados Unidos. My eyes must have rolled around while I let out a sigh… "¿Porqué non?" I asked, not really interested and not really curious (i.e., too blasé) about what kind of inanity I would hear this time around. In complete seriousness, he gave me his reply:
Because zee police weell shoot you!
Apparently, a number of Europeans think that not one of America's 300 million citizens is without a (at least one?!) gunshot wound…
As for another town in Southern Europe, a French friend said he could hardly open a copy of Nice-Matin on a daily basis without seeing a news item about one more violent crime. But maybe some Brits will say that Southern Europe cannot be a standard for the whole continent. Well, first of all, they have (conveniently) moved the goalposts (all Europe used to be far more peaceful than, and superior to, that hell-hole of violence across the pond; when the facts to back that up are proven to be — ahem – wanting, they reduce the area to fit their self-serving viewpoints). Secondly: So how about Northern Europe, then? Scandinavia, and mainly Denmark (aka the happiest place on the planet Earth), is torn by wars between motorcycle gangs… But apart from that small and insignificant detail…

Europeans parroting their élites' (self-serving) platitudes about the superiority of peaceful (and generous, and civilized, and tolerant, etc, etc, etc) Europe as opposed to violent (and blinded, and uncivilized, and clueless, etc, etc, etc) America can only do so by boxing facts into different compartments and refraining from using their brains…
Related: Don't forget to check out Americans Anonymous

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