Re: [Marxism] U.S. most armed country with 90 guns per 100 people

["Joaquin Bustelo" <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxx>]

It is surprising to see Republican-NRA's "guns don't kill people" arguments
being repeated on this list.

The plain facts are this. As of the late 1990's, the U.S. had an overall
homicide RATE (per 100,000 population) of 5.70, and a gun homicide rate of
3.72 with a corresponding non-gun rate of 1.92. So gun homicides outpaced
non-gun homicides by about two-to-one.

Britain (specifically, England and Wales), which is perhaps somewhat less
pathological than the U.S. had a somewhat lower non-gun homicide rate of
1.30, about two-thirds of the American non-gun rate. If there were the same
ratio of gun homicides to non-gun homicides as in the U.S., we would expect
a gun homicide rate of about 2.5, for an overall homicide rate of 3.8 or
thereabouts.

Instead, Britain and Wales had a gun homicide rate of 0.11, less than
one-thirtieth of the American rate, leading to a much lower overall homicide
rate of 1.41, about one fourth of that in the United States.

The right wingers from whom David borrows his arguments perpetrate all kinds
of sophistry to justify the free availability of guns. The point to the
murder rate in Washington, D.C., which bans guns, compared to rich white
suburbs in Virginia which don't, and draw the obvious conclusion that
violence and crime have social causes. But it is a complete non-sequitur to
argue that therefore it doesn't matter whether what you throw at someone in
a fit of rage is a potted plant of a few slugs from a 38 special. Or that
the gun some stick-up guy threatened you with in reality fires rubber-tipped
darts rather than bullets. 

*  *  *

It is especially sad to see a fine comrade like David repeating cheap Willie
Horton propaganda lines like "criminals that use guns acquire them illegally
through smuggling anyway." This ignores the many crimes of passion or
desperation that are committed. While certainly not true of David, when
deployed in broader society these arguments play on racism, the media's
depiction of Blacks as an inherently criminal layer, and so on. 

And even granting for argument's sake that the DESIRE for guns from
"criminals" may be the same, a ban on possession and trade of handguns will
certainly impact both supply and transaction costs, making them much more
expensive and less accessible. At the same time, the more obstacles that are
placed between guns and disturbed people like the Virginia tech shooter, the
better.

What David calls "the reality of gun ownership" in this country is an
integral part of the male/white supremacist genocidal ideology of
Americanism. 

Just today, the newspapers carried another example of this, in the videos of
a suspended Ohio policewoman and her sister, to be found on
www.thepatriotdames.com. In the "downloads" section, listen to the video
"Cubans ... Miami's Vice" and how they felt so unsafe with everyone talking
Spanish around them and even hearing Spanish music on the radio in
restaurants that they had to get guns to feel safe. THIS is the reality of
the gun culture in this country.

*  *  *

Finally, there is an argument David doesn't deploy, but since it used to be
made in the past by some left groups (including the SWP), it should be dealt
with. And that is that bans on guns are aimed at preventing, or will in any
case hinder, "the arming of the proletariat" should the capitalist class
undemocratically attempt to prevent working people, the majority, from
getting rid of the rich people's minority government, replacing it with one
truly based on the majority. In such a circumstance --civil war-- the kinds
of weapons civilians are allowed to own in the United States would be of
marginal value. And I'm certain a determined majority of the population
would find its way to the necessary technical means to defend its democratic
rights. There is simply no relation between individual gun ownership and the
equipment of a militia in today's world.

Joaquin


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