2nd Amendment, what is infringement?

[Hawaii596]

I don't usually get into the more aggressive debates.  I used to, but when I get upset, my heart starts racing.  So everyone be nice to me..(ha ha).

I've travelled extensively in north India and Haiti, two of the poorer places on the planet.  I remember a good friend in Haiti (he is Haitian born, grew up in exile in NY city, got an engineering degree from Letourneau and moved back to Haiti to help make a difference.  The website for where he works, by the way, is www.RadioLumiere.org (great organization).  As we drove along through Port-Au-Prince one time, I remember him telling me, "..they don't know they're poor..", an observation I would never have thought of.  Combine that with my other financial trivia that the poorest of the poor in the U.S.  The poorest of the poor in the U.S. are statistically among the top 20% of the richest people in the world.  Middle class Americans are among the top 5% of the richest people in the world.  Matter of fact, if I recall correctly, the statistical violent crime rate in Port-Au-Prince is lower than many U.S. cities of similar size.

All that being said, I would say that poverty can not and should not be used as an excuse for violent crime.  Violent crime is a moral problem, not at all a financial one.  I would certainly agree that drug addictions play into high levels of violent crime (and don't even get me started about that one).  When I was a teenager growing up in the 70's, I have numerous recollections of having pot smoke blown in my face on purpose because I didn't want anything to do with it.

There is nothing wrong with being poor.  Some of the poorest cultures in the world are the happiest.  Money is neither good  nor evil, and poverty is neither good nor evil.

There, I've stirred the pot enough for today.