gun rampage

Sprite

i think if you compared apples to apples.. population size etc.. i would have to say crime is higher here than in the states.. but i guess it really boils down to where you live.. thats a big factor.. a friend that owns a hotel in san jose 2 men entered the place with guns and robbed him.. this happened yesterday.. at 4pm in the afternoon. i have lived here and have lived in new york and in my years here i have been exposed to alot more crime than in my entire life.

i carry a gun here.. im mean i actually carry a legal gun here.. i would have never thought i would be one day carrying a gun.. go figure…

harlon

Edited on Apr 03, 2009 16:49

The U.S population is nominally 300 million; Costa Rica’s is about 4 million — a 75:1 ratio. So if a comparison of the Costa Rican community to the American one really was an “apples-to-apples” comparison, then for every seventy-five of these mass killings in the U.S. we could reasonably expect one in Costa Rica. Of course, it depends on just which events you count (do we include a nurse killing numerous patients, for instance?), but in my experience and memory, there have been no such events here and a very disturbing number in the U.S.

Harlon, your experience, like mine, is just that — one person’s experience. And you and I are free to make of our experiences what we will. But you cannot begin to compare a two-man armed robbery of a hotel in San Jose, however upsetting, to a fourteen-fatality killing rampage in New York. That is hardly an apples-to-apples comparison. Think about it . . . Would you rather be robbed at gunpoint or killed along with thirteen others? Or wounded?

I have to say that we are comparing apples and oranges, but that neither is OK, obviously.
I see the big difference as this:
The “mass killings” that take place in the US, end up killing random victims, usually.
That is to say the the college student, or person waiting in line at a post ofice or bank, who ends up being a random victim, would have no expectation of being a target.
On the other hand, violent crime,on non Tico’s in Costa Rica is not so random.
My partner was walking down the street, 9:00 pm in Manuel Antonio a few months back, and was held up at gun point and robbed.
He was specifically targeted, and now can reasonably expect that there are criminals who will be targeting he, or others who are like him, only because they are non-Tico, and carry the expectation of having something of worth to steal.
He did not, which made him fear for his life since that seemed to agitate his attackers.
Should we carry around “getting robbed money” , a gun, don’t go out????
Granted, “mass killings” are more disturbing, and that’s why they make the news, and get dealt with, but regardless as to weather or not my partner was alone or was a part of a “mass holdup” it was still terrifying, and very much altered his feeling of safety in a place that in the past had always seemed safe.
We can only hope that the efforts made in Manual Antonio will make things safer in our future.
Apples or oranges, does it really matter?

You make a good point, sprite. There were these mass killings before the drugs Scott mentions were widely used. The unanswered question is about the incidence of such events given the size of the “pre-drug” population. To make a valid assertion about the influence of these drugs, one must take into account the overall growth of the population base.

It would also be important to know just how many of these mass murderers were actually using or had actually been using the drugs in question as opposed to how many we just assume to have been using them. I’ve never grasped the logic of asserting that some mass killer was on some sort of mood-altering prescription drug before any facts in that regard are available.

Too, when examining the influence of these drugs, one must also consider the expertise of the prescriber, another influence. It is all too easy for a physician with no specific training to prescribe a drug s/he is not really familiar with and then to fail to monitor its effect on the patient. Writing a prescription for a tranquilizer, for example, is a fast and easy way for a doctor to get rid of a problematic patient.

And finally, of course, one must take into account the lives that have been changed for the better through the use of these drugs. I’m no fan of mass murder. Don’t get me wrong. And I’m no fan of unnecessary overuse of any medication. But I have said before that we must recognize, too, the profound improvements in the lives of many, many people through modern mood altering medications. Sadly, sometimes there are tradeoffs.

i agree with Scott, prescription drugs play a large role in all this. what many people don’t think about is what happens when one STOPS taking the anti-depressants or benzodiazepines or opioids. all those things suddenly stop flooding the brain with artificial neurotransmitters and the effects are dramatically worse than the original condition. take into account the erratic use of these drugs from someone who may or may not be “ill,” add that to an over-medicated population (especially youth), and i think it is absolutely a factor that has to be taken into consideration when these awful things happen.

Those of you who wish to lay blame for these mass killings at the feet of the drug manufacturers may be correct to do so. I don’t know. I continue to be astounded, however, at your collective ability to attribute this blame in specific cases in the absence of anything stronger than your own predisposition and speculation. Maybe the guy in Binghampton was high as a kite. I really don’t know. But when the first assertion that he was appeared here, neither did anyone else.

Maybe we need a new thread titled “Wild Speculation” and Scott and the other moderators can concentrate all this in one spot.