: Before you start insisting your government is too soft on criminals, maybe you should spend a little time in jail, and find out how they generally get treated. Go ahead, start a conversation with a room full of prison guards and wardens who think you are a criminal. Doubt your self esteem would last very long.If you are implying that our government is harsh on criminals, you are wrong. How many times have you picked up the paper or saw on the news that someone was killed-by a convicted felon? I can't even count anymore. How many times have you seen on the news somebody killed by a drunk driver, and that drunk was convicted of drunk driving before? I've seen it a hundred times. That is what I mean by saying our system is too soft on criminals. People who should be in jail are out on the streets commiting more crimes! I read the paper every day, and do you know what I see everyday? Things like "A man who has been arrested 15 times before was arrested again on assault (or drug, or robbery) yesterday". What is wrong with that picture? There is no reason why anybody should be arrested 10 or 15 times. You would think and hope that after thier 3rd or 4th arrest the judge would realize that that particular individual can't be rehabilitated into a safe member of society, and that that person is more than likely going to commit the same crime upon release. How many times must somebody be arrested and convicted before we realize that they are never going to be safe to walk our streets and that they are just going to go back to a life of crime? Would you be comfortable leaving your wife and kids at home knowing that your neighbor is a convicted murderer, rapist, child molester, burgler? I'm not saying that all thiefs, drug dealers, gangsters should be locked up for life after thier first conviction, because some of them can be rehabilitated, but after thier 3rd or 4th offense, it becomes obvious that they will never change and then they should be locked up for life.
The United States has the highest crime rate in the industrialized world. Why? Because we are too soft on criminals. Look at the other countries that are much safer than the U.S. They have strict laws to punish criminals and to deter crime. You can't blame violence on T.V. because American T.V. shows are shown in almost every country around the world. And the richer countries like Europe and Australia have thier own TV shows as well, and from what I understand, most countries foreign TV shows are much more risque than American shows! Yet in these countries, crime is practically non-existant compared to the US
: As for guns, our culture is training people (children) to be killers. The rash of schoolyard killings have all been committed by young boys (odd-is there a gender message being sent out) who played simulated shooting games.
Kids have been playing with toy guns and shooting games for hundreds of years, and it's only recently that these schoolyard killings have been happening. So who's fault is it? Guns? No. It's more like the fault of the parents who let thier kids do whatever they want and who are to busy to talk to thier kids and be a part of thier life.
:These children were so proficient with the guns they took from their parents' (fathers') houses (legal gun owners) that they were several times more accurate than trained law enforcement officers. That is frightening, and it would not happen in a society with no legal guns, and with no gun culture.
Yes, it would still happen in a society with no legal guns. Drugs are illegal but they still happen. Fireworks are illegal, but every July every household in the neighborhood has them. What makes gus so illegal? Gangsters are already breaking the law by doing drugs and practicing violence, robbery etc... do you think they will care whether guns are illegal? They will still have guns. Meanwhile the hard working honest people who own and use guns legally would be forced to give up thier guns while the low lifes on the street will still have guns.
:Guns are not cool, yet my grade one class where I teach is full of young boys who can spout the importance of Remembrance Day (Veterans' Day) in one breath, and then turn around and pretend to shoot their friend in the next breath. Grade 1! 6 years old. Where did they learn this? This is sad and frightening, and I do not want to be shot by anyone, particularly a young child who still, somewhere beneath that cloud of confusion, has some innocence left.
