“Booze and Blades”

I was really surprised to read this TimesOnLine article yesterday. It says:

"A UNITED Nations report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America.

England and Wales recorded the second highest number of violent assaults while Northern Ireland recorded the fewest."

The study, by the UN’s crime research institute, found:
3% of Scots had been victims of assault, compared with:

2.8% in England and Wales
1.2% in America
0.1% in Japan
0.2% in Italy
0.8% in Austria

I realize that the United States is considered a "gun toting" society, and we are known for our violence, so reading about Scotland, and the United Kingdom in general, kind of threw me for a loop.

Even though, it is illegal to own a gun in the U.K. (apart from hunting), it should be pretty obvious that anything can be used to do bodily harm on an individual. Lately, I have noticed an increased amount of victims being stabbed. There has been noises lately of not allowing minors to purchase even kitchen knives. I really don't know how the government in the U.K. is going to go about rounding up knives, like they did rounding up guns. Everyone uses knives within their homes.

How about just for kicks, say knives have been banned. I suppose the next thing would be axes/hatchets, razor blades, ice picks, srewdrivers, ballpoint pens, pencils , baseball and cricket bats, piano wire, electrical wire, guitar strings, rope of any sort, trains, cars, subways; the list goes on and on. As you can see, anything can be used in the commission of a crime against another human being.

Clearly, taking away weapons is not going to do the trick. Educating our children on the sanctity of life might be the right step towards civility and respect towards another.

What say you?