It does no good to point out that Singapore's imprisonment rate is more than double that of Canada -- and its crime rate less than one-tenth the Canadian crime rate. Many in the west were appalled to discover some years ago, that an American first offender in Singapore was sentenced to corporal punishment.

Few of the indignant critics bothered to consider the possibility that this might be a way to prevent the young man from becoming a second offender -- and perhaps saving him from a worse fate later on if he continued to disregard laws.

Self-defense against criminals is anathema to the left in both Britain and the United States but in Britain the left has greater predominance. Britons who have caught burglars in their homes and held them at gunpoint until the police arrived have found themselves charged with a crime -- even when it was only a toy gun.

Given the prevailing view in the British criminal justice system that burglary is a "minor" offense and the fierce hostility to guns, even toy guns, the homeowner is far more likely to end up behind bars than the burglar is.

The left's jihad against gun ownership by law-abiding citizens has produced a flood of distorted information. International comparisons almost invariably compare the United States with some country with stronger gun control laws and lower murder rates.

But, if facts really mattered, you could just as easily compare the United States to countries with stronger gun control laws and higher murder rates -- Brazil and Russia, for example.

You could compare the United States with countries with more widespread gun ownership -- Switzerland and Israel, for example -- and lower murder rates. But that's only if facts are regarded as more important than the dogmas of the left.

Millions of crime victims pay the price of the left's illusions about crime -- and about themselves.