better not mess with US

!! Whoa. The Culture of the Gun must account for part of that. But are Canadian guns hand guns, personal arms? My grandfather had 5 rifles, which he sold to collectors ages ago, from when he was a farmer and hunted for food (he's 94).

How many of those guns are heritage items like that, or practical tools for the many areas (North, prairies) where shotguns and rifles are necessary for basic survival and farm operations?

I think maybe there might be more to this story.

Ughhh......blanket statements just annoy the hell out of me......

You will have to forgive for being snarky but I get so tired of the Canadian / American comparison.

I am an American, I don't own and gun and I have never killed anyone.....

Quote: Originally posted by Rayna I am an American, I don't own and gun and I have never killed anyone.....

With a gun, anyway, I've seen your glare! heh heh

You don't want to get me started on this subject again.

I think you need to consider the cultural differences here too. I won't go into the racial thing here as I feel it isn't appropriate for this forum. But that is a contributing factor as to why the numbers are higher.

Where are your sources for your post at?

Did you know that Canada has a larger percentage of rapes than the US? Probably cause there aren't as many pistol packing mammas.

Is this US/Canadian thing that big an issue? I have been to both countries but I have never really gleened that it is a major thing...

Quote: Originally posted by detox
Is this US/Canadian thing that big an issue? I have been to both countries but I have never really gleened that it is a major thing...

Nah, it's not a big thing. Mostly just a debate among friends.

As far as the gun thing, I personally will never own one. Part of the reason is that I think that they cause more problems than they cure. Another part is having a family member killed with one.

Well, from a Canadian perspective I think the American/Canadian "debate" or whatever you want to call it is, for us, trying to find a way of identifying ourselves as a unique culture. As my sig says "Canada is not 'America Junior'", and we've been struggling with that basically forever.

I would rather not get into the guns issue...

I got those stats from the highly-respected author and political/social activist Michael Moore - he recently participated in a panel discussion in NYC dealing with economic justice issues - I caught C-SPAN's coverage of the event

Quote: Did you know that Canada has a larger percentage of rapes than the US? Probably cause there aren't as many pistol packing mammas.

apparently Canada changed its criminal statutes regarding rape about 20 years ago - now there are three levels of "sexual assault," ranging from coercion to the use of a weapon to inflicting serious bodily injury (levels 1 to 3) - the motivation for this change seems to be a recognition that these are crimes of violence, not sexuality (got that right!)

reported rapes in the US in 1999 were about 35 per 100,000 population - our neighbors to the North experienced a rate of reported sexual assault (all levels) of about 80 per 100,000 - I'm gonna make a confident guess that had these crimes occurred in the States, about half would have been classified as "rapes" while the rest would fall into other unpleasant categories I won't delineate - this would mean that the two countries are roughly comparable in this area, which seems to be the consensus in the material I reviewed - sorry I can't be more definitive

Quote: I think you need to consider the cultural differences here too. I won't go into the racial thing here as I feel it isn't appropriate for this forum. But that is a contributing factor as to why the numbers are higher.

when you say "cultural differences" and "the racial thing," I assume you're referring to the higher incidence of gun violence in the Afro-American community - I'd argue that corelates very highly with factors like poverty, unemployment, ineffective schools, lousy medical care and the general lack of opportunity afforded blacks in this country

here's some more stuff I found looking around, much of which I figure you all are familiar with:

1 in 6 women in the United States has experienced an attempted or completed sexual assault (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

only about a third of rapes are reported - in a 1988 study, 42% of college student rape victims told no one about their assaults ("I Never Called It Rape," Robin Warshaw, New York: Harper and Row, 1998)

two-thirds of rape victims knew their assailant (husbands, boyfriends, acquaintances, other relatives) - ya gonna shoot them?

battering is the leading cause of injury to women aged 15 to 44 in the United States (US Surgeon General's Office)