Quote: "I would assume most imprisonment is punishment for violent crime or "physical" crimes like robbery/etc."
You said it yourself: assumption. A lot of the people in prison could simply be in there because they don't have much money and were caught driving their car with outdated smog tags, or broke a simple traffic law, got pulled over, and were found to not have insurance on their cars, or could have evaded taxes, or (probably one of the biggest as this is how the American mind tends to works) fraude. My point being, we have no clue why a lot of the americans are in jail so we can't assume that they are violent. Actually, my biggest suspicion why so many are in jail: drug usage. i've never heard of anyone around me go to jail except over drugs or alcohol usage at an inappropriate time. Then theire are the wonderfully built drug factories built out of homes all over the place that blow up every few months.... It could go on. In all honesty, on the news, I rarely ever hear of shootings. Usually its killings with knives at convenience stores, throut slitting, decapitation, forced drowning stuff like that. (the more disgusting deaths are usually commited by petafiles or angry husbands). Many criminals are smart enough to not use guns as they are very messy and splat evidence all over the place (DNA samples, GSR, shell IDing, gun tracking, etc...)
Is it just me or now a days, do women not kill as much with poisons anymore? Usually, lately, it's a shot to the stomache with a gun or smothering or something wierd like that it seems. Ofcourse, women really don't seem to kill that much.
Quote: "Rural counties experienced a 0.5-percent increase in Index crime, which can be attributed to increases in robbery, larceny-thefts, and motor vehicle thefts from 1999 to 2000"
-old figures but hold my point for at least my area. (btw, most robberies aren't violent. Robbers usually "case" a house so they know for sure the occupants are not home before they act).
Car theft is another factor involved in crimes and is VERY common. Two of my friends in the past year have had attempted car thefts on their vehicles.
Found a graph to back Randi's point of outlawing guns that outlines the homicide rate increase during prohibition and the same rate increase starting at "the war on drugs". The same could be contributed to gun control.
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/Modifiedmurderchart.gif
BTW, "reasonable force" is in the eye of the judge. I don't know the facts on the farmer case, but as far as I know, if someone suspiciously acts as if they have a firearm or any kind of weapon and makes a gesture appearing that they might be drawing it, you do/should have reasonable force to shoot that person. Reason being, cops in the US go by those same rules. That's why you hear every now and then about how the cops shot a man and how horrible it was cuz he wasn't armed: the cops had no way of knowing, and after a warning of no fast moves, they dissobeyed and made a dangerous gesture. Even if it was for their wallet, the police don't know.
And besides, what the heck am i supposed to do if someone pulls a painted water pistol on me in the dark? wait until he shoots it to find out it is just water?
Quote: "Add to this a lot of rural areas have no police protection and are very vunerable to robberies."
-the winch
this for the most part, is true. My area, though becoming urbanized, is still fairly rural and police response time is lowsy here. I think it's because the govt. keeps spending tax dollars on expierements like "Who has more gray cells? Men or women?" <- This was actually researched and was concluded: "What's it matter since it is only how you use them" which basically Nulls out the entire point of the experiment. My opinion: Who cares. This experiment costed over $10,000 tax dollars if i remember correctly.
Current Projects: Game Spawn 85%, mini BSP maker 50%, Height Mapper with many features 75%, Space Tactical (Like BC300AD) 15%.
