Quote:
Originally posted by rob love
Here was a letter to the editor a Liberal sent in here in Canada re the Texas gun culture. Makes it sould like you guys are running a shooting gallery there.
This was posted on canadiangunnutz.com, whose members did not share the authors selective vision regarding the right to self defense.
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It's all too easy to use hyperbole in an emotional debate on a subject such as gun control. Mahmood Elahi, who I'm sure is a fine Canadian, does his side a disservice by shrilly decrying the "gun culture in Texas."
Let's calmly and rationally look at the facts. I looked up a few statistics and I can compare statistics from 2005 for Canada and Texas.
Firstly population:
In 2005 Canada's population was set at 32,805,041 while Texas' population was set at 22,859,968. The best estimates for Illegal Aliens residing in Texas put the number at 7 to 10 million, so the unofficial population of Texas could exceed that of the entire country of Canada, so let's compare apples to apples.
Homicides in Canada in 2005: 658
Homicides in Texas in 2005: 1,407
Significantly more, granted, but not the "thousands" expounded by Mr. Elahi and his ilk. But, consider this, most of the murders in Texas are Black-on-Black, Hispanic-on-Hispanic, Drug dealer-on-Drug dealer, or Gang banger-on-Gang Banger and tend to be concentrated in certain geographical areas. I'm willing to bet that if one could retrieve the racial and criminal proportion of the homicide rate out of the total, you'd find that a White, law-abiding citizen who stays out of Oak Cliff or Northside Drive area of Fort Worth is far safer in Texas than in Canada. Why? because one doesn't want to piss someone off here because they are probably carrying a pistol. When I lived and commuted to work in Vancouver, B.C. I was flipped off 6-10 times a day by other hot-headed commuters. Here in Texas, I've maybe been flipped off 6-10 times in 5 1/2 years! An armed citizenry is a polite citizenry. Derek.