[Thermodyne]

In 1992 Accidental deaths in US was 13.3 in 100 000 and in Sweden 5.

I think we need to remove death by motor vehicle from both sides of the equation. No place in the world has the miles traveled by car percapita as the US. And no one has the number of basically dangerous recreational vehicles that we do. Often the figure for death by firearm is quoted as an indication of the state of our society. But its just a big number to people that are not used to thinking that large. In 1999, more people died from car accidents on one weekend than were killed by firearms for the whole year. And if we gave the same percentage of overpowered motor vehicles to the young people of Sweden, the death rate would soar. Add to that the legal protection that our constitution gives to drunk drivers and substance abUsers, and the number would rise again.

In Sweden, if I got drunk and killed someone in a car accident, what would happen to me as a first offense? Would I get my license back? Would I go to jail? What if I didn’t hurt anyone just wrecked my car? What would the penalty for that be?

In America we do put people to death for high crimes and attacks of an exceptionally violent nature. But on the other side of the coin, we let a lot of people off very lightly. And the vast majority of convicts on death row are repeat offenders.