The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker @ Amazon.comHas anyone here ever read this book? The head of my department at work wants us all to read this book. I have my suspicions about it. My first clue was the blurb on the back that states, "In this empowering book, Gavin de Becker, the man Oprah Winfrey calls the nation's leading expert on violent behavior...". Who is Oprah Winfrey to run around making statements about who the leading expert on violent behavior is?
My suspicions were borne out in the first chapter. It only took until page 7 that apparently BS statements jumped out at me.
Violence is a part of America, and more than that, it is a part of our species. It is around us, and it is in us. As the most powerful people in history, we have climbed to the top of the world food chain, so to speak. Facing not one single enemy or predator who poses to us any danger of consequence, we've found the only prey left: ourselves.
Lest anyone doubt this, understand that in the last two years alone [the book is copyright 1997], more Americans have died from gunshot wounds than were killed during the entire Vietnam War. By contrast, in all of Japan (with a population of 120 million people), the number of young men shot to death in a year is equal to the number killed in New York City in a single busy weekend.
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With that statement above, my BS detector jumped into high gear.
A quick perusal of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports for the years 1995-96 (the last two years preceding his book) showed that in 1995 20,043 Americans were the victims of murder or nonnegligent homicide. The FBI further states that firearms were used in 7 of 10 homicides. Seventy percent of 20,043 is 14,030.1.
The statistics for 1996 show that 15,848 Americans were homicide victims, and again, 7 of 10 victims were killed by an assailant wielding a firearm. Seventy percent of 15,848 is 11,093.6.
14,030.1
+11,093.6 25,123.7
Wikipedia's page on the Vietnam War states that during America's involvement in Vietnam from 1957-75, 58,226 American service members were killed in action.
25,123 < 58,226 = Gavin de Becker = full of shit.
What do you guys think?