| ArnoldRimmer said: Apart from the fact that a "90%" crime rate doesn't seem to make much sense, the perception of danger is relative and depends on what a person is used to. The best number I can currently think of to somehow measure and compare the danger of being shot when leaving the house is the number of people killed in firearm-related homicides per 100000 population per year: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate Looking at that data, people from Colombia or Mexico visiting the USA will probably consider the danger of being shot in a gun-related homicide to be surprisingly low, because in their countries that danger is about three times higher. I on the other hand would probably consider it very high, simply because that danger is about 50 times higher than what I am used to from my own country. |
You look at a paper to figure out if where you live is violent? Not really sure what to tell you.
I've never once owned a weapon, nor have I ever felt that a situation would arise where I would need a weapon.
Best just to stick with what you know which, from what I can tell, isn't much.
I've been to the Dominican Republic, Cancun, Punta Cana, and Grand Cayman.
Never felt the need to have a gun there either and they all have a higher homicide rate than the US by quite a substantial margin.
Paper stats aren't useful at all to determining public perception of violence.
