: ::: The drug war is the CAUSE of the high U$ murder rate. When Nanacy Reagan launced the current iteration of "War on Drugs" in the '80's, I predicted it would soon be a real war with real guns, but nobody listened. I agree that the insane Drug War is the cause of much murder and misery; I'm not certain it's the whole story, though, with regard to handgun deaths. Columbine, for example, was not part of the drug war.
:Speaking of crime and killing, I have heard of at least two cases where people killed or crippled armed robbers while unarmed themselves.
: In one case a man stepped out of a bar and was met by a robber with a knife to the throat. He responded by driving three fingers of his hand into the robber's larnyx in a martial arts move. The robber's windpipe cracked and he dropped dead after drowning in his own blood. As the intended victim had used supposedly nonlethal barehanded force, he was not charged with any crime(they seem to love to prosecute self-defense in this part of the world.)
: In the second case, a serial robber who specialized in knife robberies (he could have just as easily had a gun if he wanted, but guns cost drug money) asked his intended victim for his wallet, and got a flaming lighter applied to his down jacket instead. The jacket, containing powdery flammable material(down) puffed with air, damn near exploded in flames and the robber ran away screaming, on fire from stem to stern(this was the first I heard that down jackets were so dangerous to humans as well as geese). As you see, there are PLENTY of ways to kill without guns-and some robbers around here seem to prefer knives anyway, as people fear being stabbed more than a bullet(it hurts more) and a gun is far easier to wrench from someone's hand and use against him(even cops get shot with their own guns all the time).
As my karate teacher has said time and again, when faced with a guy with a gun, he'll gladly hand over all his money without a fight. Fists of fury are no match for bullets of lead. As for knives and clubs, my sensei has said that if all his attacker wanted was money, he'd give up the money without a fight rather than try to do a Bruce Lee on the knife/club.
: To stop the violence will require far more than changing the tools of death and destruction. It will require ending the war on drugs that turns thousands of otherwise harmless addicts(think winos) into ruthless predators and scavengers desperate to get what organized crime demands to feed their habits.
We need to legalize drugs. This will greatly reduce the violence associated with a high risk/high profit industry. So, we agree.
: In fact, the War on Drugs could even cause a Vietnam-style U$ intervention in Colombia to enforce U$ will on a country that has risen in revolt against the war on drugs and the Western multinationals. FARC and ELN could easily be the next Vietcong, and it behooves all of us to stand together(no matter what we think of guns, drugs, or anything else) to oppose U$ bombing and killing in Colombia. You think the war on drugs is shooting a lot of people now? Just wait until the U$ starts machine-gunning peasants wholesale in Colombia(think My Lai).
Luke, you have to remember that the U.S. military learned a valuable lesson from Vietnam. We won't be shooting anyone (at least, not on the ground. Airplanes, that's different, but nobody will see that). We'll pay the Columbians to do our massacrering for us.
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