Paul,

Assume what you like; you will.

Why pick the US as the benchmark when so many other countries are much worse in suicides and homicides and some countries, such as Australia, are worse places for vehicle theft, we outranked the US in 2009-12 and the US beat us in 2014.
When we move to burglary and house breaking Australia leads the US in all years
Sourse: UNODC International Burglary, Car Theft and Housebreaking Statistics, 2014.

Perhaps Sandalplank the Tourist will be studying this statistic while he is in the USA?

So Is mise, you're basically saying that many of our crime rates are still high, at least as high as the USA, so criminality is still a part of our culture...

...and yet our homicide rates are far far lower than theirs.

Gee, I wonder why that would be?

Bugsy,

If you wonder, then why don't you do a bit of research and tell us?

It just might be because of the different drug related crime rates or it might just be because African Americans kill each other at a higher rate than other ethnic groups.

Now you're gettin' it! You can interpret the statistics any way you like, throwing out random rates of property crime does not mean anything does it?

I guess we do have fewer African Americans here, but I suspect the ones we do have don't show up on our crime statistics, so it's hard do figure out a relative rate there.

Our national drug rates are comparable, so do drug rates correlate state by state with homicide rates in the USA? It should if there's a causal link.

Before you go telling me to do my own research, remember YOU are the one making up the stories, I just want you to back them up a bit with some actual relevant data analysis.

Is Mise, your topic concerns David Shoebridge going to the US in relation to guns. If there had not been a gun related death there since 1776 there would be little point in such a trip. If all gun deaths were only occurring in say two places in the World, Australia and Mongolia, I would suggest David should go to Mongolia to study gun deaths in another country. Alas that is not the reality, and America is fertile ground to undertake such research.

Now how about answering those question!

Paul,

David Sandalplank could have done his 'research' via the net and saved the taxpayers some money, just as all other politicians, Lib, Nat Labour, Shooters et al, could do.
There is no justification, with the technology that we have today, for 99% of overseas personal contact.
I chat most Sundays with friends in Europe, the UK and the USA, we talk to each other in real time and with real time visuals and it all costs a few cents.

Perhaps your mate lacks computer skills but it's quite easy, I'm sure that he could learn.