The world of guns and laws in America is out of whack. Malcolm Blackwell has written an interesting book on the subject called The American Way of Killing: The Invention of an Epidemic. I saw him interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN. Gladwell says both sides in the dispute are being dishonest.

This is what he said in his book:

“When either side pretends that something is consequential when is not. When either side avoids the right conclusion because it is difficult, or when either side blinds itself to the truth through laziness or indifference the American conversation about guns is rife with these kinds of dishonesties.”

In other words, he said both sides of the gun debate traffic in dishonesties.  This goes down to a fundamental problem. We can never solve any social problems unless we are prepared to be honest with others and ourselves.

For example, he asked the question ‘is America over policed?’ What do you think. I thought the answer was yes. According to Gladwell, I am wrong about that. He says most Americans believe, like I did, that they are over policed. But, he says the facts belie this myth. He says, “the opposite is true. Los Angles and Berlin are the same size. LA has 8,500 police officers, Berlin has 18,000.”  That is more than double. As Gladwell said, “when you are over manned you have to project force in a way that you have to be aggressive.”

Gladwell thinks this contributes to violence in America.  American police get more violent because, he says, they are out manned. He says this is typical. European cities typically have twice the police per capita as American cities.  This shocked me. Learn something every day. As a result, American police are more violent than their European counterparts. America has a violence problem is what Gladwell concludes. This I knew.

Gladwell concluded that America is under policed.  But it is also overly violent.  That is not really a good combination. That is a recipe for trouble.