Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer criticized the National Rifle Association and asked Australians to avoid the U.S. as a way to force its Congress to act on gun control.
"Tourists thinking of going to the U.S.A. should think twice," Fischer told the Herald Sun.
"This is the bitter harvest and legacy of the policies of the NRA that even blocked background checks for people buying guns at gun shows. People should take this into account before going to the United States. I am deeply angry about this because of the callous attitude of the three teenagers, [but] it's a sign of the proliferation of guns on the ground in the U.S.A. There is a gun for almost every American."
Oh, for fuck's sake....
You're taking three kids who decided to murder someone because of
boredom, and suggesting that they wouldn't have done it if they didn't have a gun? That's not the kind of people who are going to give two shits! You're literally murdering people for fun; how is not having a gun going to make you suddenly rethink everything?
Never mind that the distribution of violent crime in the United States is extremely uneven (it's mostly concentrated in large urban areas, especially poor ones) and even the most murder-prone city in the United States (Flint, Michigan) tops out at 65-66 murders per 100,000 citizens. You're not exactly likely to get blasted by thugs every time you walk out on the street. A major part of the apparent violence of the United States comes from its large size and high population, and how many of the citizens live in densely populated urban centers that almost always suffer higher crime rates no matter what country you come from.
But no, actually understanding crime in relation to population and economic factors and how it's unevenly distributed would actually require intelligence and willingness to be educated. Can't have that in politics.
