There Is More Violence In Europe Than America:
One of our readers from England has objected that while you have spectacular terrorist attacks such as the one in London on March 22 really the danger of violence is greater in America. He quotes the statistic of 340,000 Americans killed by gun violence since 9/11. This was Cheops Books’s response:
It seems that you are getting off topic a lot about violence in America. We were talking about terrorism, I think. But getting off topic always introduces new things to talk about so it is OK. It reminds Gary of a course he took in college at Haverford called Violence in America by Roger Lane. It was a topics course. At the end of the course everybody wrote a substantial paper. Gary wrote about violence in the farm fields in California in the 1930’s a la John Steinbeck. This course covered the time period from the Colonial time period to the present day. Gary said violent strikes and protests were common. So were race riots. Then there has been a tradition of the “kooky murders”, the looney fringe violence in America that you don’t get in Europe. Gary says that it is reported on here more than any other place for one thing. That’s why you know about it. Other societies might repress it.
I don’t know where you get your figures. Remember the Devil can quote not only scripture for his purpose but also statistics broadcast by the media trying to prove something or make a point. But assuming for a minute that you are accurate and it could be proved objectively that 340,000 Americans have been shot dead. The question to ask is WHERE. America is a big country in square footage. A lot of this violence would no doubt occur in what you would call slums and districts of cities where racial minorities live. For instance in Tucson there is a district called South Tucson where hardly a white person is ever seen. Supposedly the police won’t even go there. It is Mexican gang territory. No real estate agent will go there either and if you are white nobody will sell you a house there. That is where the vast majority of the slayings and killings take place. This doesn’t mean that a white person going grocery shopping at the A J’s fancy store in the Foothills, the swankiest address in the Tucson area, is likely to be shot dead. So consider this when talking about your statistics. Every city in the country of any size has the same set up.
By contrast the terrorist violence in Europe in the past 2 years seems to occur in swanky areas such as Nice, France on the beach or in the airport in Brussels where travelers go and businessmen, too. It occurs in Paris and in the West End of London. That is why it is worrisome to Americans who are used to violence in slums only.
Certainly there was more violence in Europe than America in the days of Edward Ware Thrillers at War. World War 1 and World War 2 took place on European soil, not American.
