Re: Colorado - Seen from abroad

["sudia" <sudia@xxxxxxxxx>]

Oddone Virginio wrote:
> 
> Dear colleagues,
> 
> discussions on the listserv and on international media about the Colorado
> incident have been focused essentially on the psychological and moral
> aspects, i.e. on the "inside" of the killers and their gang. I regard this
> as a serious mistake. From my perspective - which is, I admit, that of a
> person living thousands of miles away, in a different continent and country
> - the real issue is another, because Colorado and other recent
> "school-related killings" appear to be a typical american phenomenon. As
> far as I know, no such incident occurred in any EEC country, nor in other
> industrialised countries with a predominantly european population or
> culture, such as Canada or Australia. This appears to be in agreement with
> epidemiological data, showing exceedingly high rates of child murder in the
> USA as compared with other industrialized countries (the overall  homicide
> ratio US:non US was 15.7:1 - see the CDC report "Rates of Homicide,
> Suicide, and Firearm-Related Death Among Children - 26 Industrialized
> Countries", MMWR, vol. 46 n.5, feb. 7, 1997, pp. 101 - 105, with a
> tell-tale table). Thus, a first question should be posed: WHY HERE AND NOT
> THERE? which implies that research should be, first and above all,
> COMPARATIVE and not just "internal", americocentric, aimed at psychological
> or microsocial causes.
> 
> I would add that the american "gun craze" is there for something, in that
> it makes available to everybody, in every possibile corner of the society,
> not just the weapons, but also the know how needed to use efficiently them,
> even to build new ones.
> 
> Friendship from Italy
> 
> Virginio
> 
> Virginio Oddone MD
> V. Avogadro 6
> 10121 - Torino (Italy)
> e-mail: oddovir@xxxxxxxxx
> 
> Virginio Oddone MD
> V. Avogadro 6
> 10121 - Torino (Italy)
> e-mail: oddovir@xxxxxxxxx

I strongly agree with Dr. Oddone, that the problem of American children
killing themselves and others could use some comparative studies.  The
Washington POST printed figures, probably from the study he cited, that
in 1996, there was in Japan - 15 handgun deaths by children; in Great
Britain, 30; in Canada, 106; and in the U.S., 9,300.  Even correcting
for population does not remove the disparity.  On the other hand, it is
probably nicely correlated with average income, numbers of people in
prison, average size of highschools, the number of guns sold everyday
and various other good things of the society.  Has anyone seen a
drive-by stabbing recently?

Cecelia Sudia
Washington, DC
csudia@xxxxxxxxx