Hi again Jason,

I’m not sure if you realise what’s happening here, your defence of Kyle is fine by me, I don’t know if he’s guilty or not guilty, and, to be honest, it has nothing to do with me. The article I wrote wasn’t about that, it was about the reaction to his acquital or conviction and your discussion about it is exactly what I mean.

For your own reasons you believe Kyle is innocent, I respect your views and completely understand them, the other side of the coin is a large group of people who disagree with you and I equally respect their views and understand them — whether Kyle is innocent or guilty will be decided by 12 jurors, not be the two opposing sides of the debate. What will happen if he’s found guilty? Will you accept that as a clear case of natural justice and that the 12 jurors were correct in their assessment of the case, knowing all the facts, or will you be angry and protest the decision? We all know there are going to be people who are angry and will protest. Some of them will carry guns to the protest, this is inevitable. If he’s acquitted, we know some will protest about that, wil they bring guns to their protest or will Kyle’s supporters take guns to quell their protest? These are the questions that people should be asking, not if he’s guilty or innocent but what will happen when he’s found to be one or the other?

As for China’s crime rate, the numbers are produced regularly and widely circulated — there’s even English language resutls you can see on places like this: https://www.statista.com/statistics/224776/number-of-crimes-in-china-by-type/ These figures come from China’s official releases. I’ve quoted them before and never have a problem believing them. I happen to live and travel extensively around China, I’ve done so for over 17 years and I have clearly observed there is a very low level of all crimes, the worst crime nowadays appears to be telephone scamming from outside of Mainland China, Macau and Taiwan have some pretty nasty telephone sams going on. Murders are almost non existent, I’m aware of one in my city in the last 10 years and that was as a result of a domestic dispute(4 million people live in the city). And yes, the murderer was executed. Americans get executed too, so let’s not debate whether that’s right or wrong, let’s stick to the facts. Crime is very low here, it’s very high there.

Your final point is a good one and I absolutely agree with you, why would you want to turn into a Japan or a Sweden, I have no idea of the gun laws in Sweden, but I am aware it’s impossible for a person in Japan to privately hold a legal gun. Hence their gun deaths are miniscule. I just think that, if I were an American parent, I’d be lobbying for change if I saw my kids off to school with bulletproof backpacks and saw them coming home from school talking about how to handle a bullet wound in a first aid class, or what reactions they would need to adopt in the event of a madman with a gun entering their school, I’d be lobbying for change.

As for policy measures, that’s nothing to do with me, nor why I wrote this article, I write to stimulate discussion and thoughts. It seems, with yourself, I’ve managed to do that, and I’m grateful for it and your input.