Coat of Arms of Johannesburg, South Africa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I know, I’m an American, I should talk. When I visited South Africa, I was shocked at the number of guns, and I am from Brooklyn, New York. I don’t shock easily. Now, I live in Tucson, Arizona, where guns are easier to obtain. I still saw more firearms in South Africa.
The day I arrived, my friends took me to their local country club, in the area they lived in between Johannesburg and Pretoria. We sat down at the bar and the bartender said, “We are taking up a collection for Valentine (one of the waiters). My friend Laurie’s eyebrows shot up. ”What happened to Valentine?”
Turns out, there was an attempt to rob the place. One bad guy dead, one captured, one shot Valentine to death on the way out.
I was hosted in a gated home. I walked alone outside the gate once to walk down to the shops. I saw how afraid people were.
One day I will post my entire adventures there. Thinking about returning. Please see the following links.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/23/world/africa/south-africa-gun-violence/
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Israel citizen’s have guns but zero personal violence events – makes one wonder – are we Jews just less violence?
Are Jews less violent? Pre Rome, we were a warrior people. Then, 1900 years of Diaspora, made being more careful important. Maybe we learned to let it out through kvetching. Maybe Jewish anthropologists, psychologists and sociologists can weigh in. For how long, have we been outnumbered and “outgunned?” Genetics has now exposed the “warrior gene.” Allegedly the Maori in New Zealand have the highest percentage. I wonder what the Jewish percentage is. I’ve written about the Jewish gangsters in the United States. Would someone with the same makeup today still be violent, it is just he will do it legally through business deals. Instead, broken people and businesses, but no dead bodies.