Quick Short Topic: Canada

[famousringo]

thranx said:

Runa216 said:
Canada is like America without the religious right. So we're the relatively mellow, well behaved offspring of the good parts of the US and Great britan.

And we don't love guns nearly as much as the US, at least not to the point of Fetishism.

I think its more that Canada is like america with out the racial and gang problems. the religous right dont really make any violent headlines.

Oh, we have race issues. We also have gang issues. I'd say there are three main reasons we don't seem to have as many violent crime problems:

1. Less guns. We still have about as many guns as any developed country besides the US and Switzerland, but that works out to about 1/3 the number of guns as the average American (coincidentally, we also have 1/3 the murders per capita). We also have tighter gun control laws on guns designed to kill humans (automatic weapons, semi-auto pistols) than long guns designed for hunting, so those guns are more likely to be used to shoot animals than people. 

2. More relaxed drug laws. We're a little ahead of the US in decriminalizing marijuana. Throwing people in prison for minor drug offences risks socializing them as criminals and leading to more serious offences down the road. Every lucrative black market is life blood to organized crime.

3. More equality. This is the big one. Better social safety net, universal health care, better public education, more accessible post-secondary education. Our rich are less rich, but our poor are also less poor. Poverty breeds crime.