[extropy-chat] Re: blah snip: Gun control [Australia]

[Damien Broderick]

At 03:34 PM 4/4/2004 -0700, Mike wrote:

>Are you asserting that NH's perceived whiteness is the prime factor in
>our low crime rates???
>
>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/33000.html
>NH is 95% non-hispanic white.

In a country with a bitterly racist and divisive history (like the USA and 
to a lesser extent Australia--lesser only by chance, in that whites failed 
to kidnap and enslave huge numbers of some other ethnic group, while the 
indigenes were reduced in number by disease and depredation), it is 
perfectly *obvious* that homogeneity is the prime factor in your low crime 
rate *compared with other American states where the situation is otherwise*.

>Trying to find out what minority populations there are in Australia
>through the ABS is a truly labyrinthian task.

In some parts of Australia there are lots of enclaves of humans recently 
from different backgrounds, usually disadvantaged as newcomers often are, 
and quite often their criminal youth prey on their own communities or erupt 
into spiteful and brainless but very primate murderous aggression against 
each other in turf wars. These days a weapon of choice seems to be the 
sword or machete, something `traditional' white European Aussies would not 
use. In the ACT, like NH, there are fewer ethnically diverse gangs, 
although probably many more white collar criminals scamming the nation, 
since that's the headquarters of the federal government and bureaucracy. 
But everyone having small arms at home doesn't seem to halt their 
depredations in the USA.

> > Try comparing NH with... well, it's hard to find
> > a part of Australia small, compact and homogeneous enough to make any
> > cf. valid. Maybe the Australian Capital Territory:  (pop. 322,680) year
> > 2001-2 homicides: 2 women, no men, 0.62 per 100,000.
>
>NH is 1.23 million, not 300k. If you are complaining about the
>population differential between Oz and NH, you are guilty of your own
>sin here.

Amphigory and persiflage. I am complaining about the comparative population 
mixes, as you make clear above.

Damien Broderick