2012-12-16

Feios, Porcos e Maus




«There is little doubt that America has a serious and growing problem with mass shootings. There have been at least seven this year where four or more people have been killed. Added together they have claimed a total of at least 65 lives. But those numbers pale in contrast to the simple toll of shooting victims that plays out across America every single day in a regular parade of gun violence.

According to the Brady Campaign, which advocates gun control, around 100,000 Americans are wounded or killed by guns each year. One of its studies showed US murder rates are almost seven times higher than rates in 22 other populous high-income countries who have similar rates of lower level crime. The same study showed that America's firearms homicide rate is almost 20 times higher.

Yet despite the violence the US Congress has not enacted any major firearms regulations other than a law aimed at improving state reporting for federal background checks. Indeed, regulations have actually loosened over the last decade as a 1994 assault-weapon ban expired in 2004. Most of the current debate in American policy circles has actually been around the issue of expanding citizens' rights to carry firearms openly in public.»

Paul Harris

Entrar numa caixa de comentários de uma qualquer notícia sobre o massacre de Sandy Hook deixa-me chocada e enojada com a maioria das opiniões expressas. Para muitos, não é preciso reforçar as leis de controlo de armas; para muitos, o que estava bem é que cada americano, incluindo cada criança, tivesse uma arma para assim poder defender-se. É uma mentalidade totalmente contrária a qualquer lógica suportada pelas evidências e os números. Tirando o maluco da Noruega, quando se fala em massacres, de que País nos lembramos, que casos somos capazes de nomear? Quantos aconteceram depois das reacções chocadas a seguir a Columbine? Que gente é aquela que resolve tudo a tiro, como se ainda vivesse no far west e todos fossem apenas feios, porcos e maus?

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