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Copyright 2015 - 2020 by Paul Baumgartner
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Stay Calm And Realize That Murder Rates Are Actually Going Down
How many times have we heard this over the last 7 years? I'm sure we are going to hear this again after the San Bernadino Shootings. All to justify one of Obama's favorite agendas: Gun Control. It has already been established time and again that gun control does not affect the murder rate. There are other ways to commit mass murder. Vehicles, bombs, fires, and even knives have been used to commit mass murders. When you compare the actual number of mass murders in the US, the numbers are bigger. However, other advanced countries that we are comparing ourselves to have much lower populations. If you compare the U.S. mass murder rate to the mass murder rate in European countries, the U.S. comes in a dismal 9th.
So, why are we seeing so many of these mass murder events on television? While mass murder events are increasing, the total murder rates are going down. Now, mass murders are always very intentional events. So, if someone planning to kill mass quantities of people is going to intentionally kill people, not having a gun is going to stop him is it? Perhaps the killer will use something that will kill more people like a gun or a fire.
Another thing we keep hearing is that the problem is the guns. If only we could get rid of the guns, we will greatly reduce the number of mass murders. But the fact that 8 European countries have higher Mass Murder rates does not coincide with the fact that these same European countries have much lower gun ownership rates. See the chart below to see how the U.S. exceeds Europe on gun ownership.
But, then it is argued that the U.S. has the highest murder rate in the world. This is not even close. See the chart below for a comparison of the U.S. with the top 10 murder rates in the world.
So, wait a minute. Those are undeveloped countries in the top ten. Well not even close. In the chart above, Columbia, Peurto Rico, and brazil certainly qualify as developed countries. So, okay, let's compare with only developed countries in the chart below.
Okay, so now you see that Chile, Russia, and Mexico have much higher murder rates than the U.S. too. So, what can make these murders go down? Obviously, taking away one of the possible weapons won't change much. Guns don't cause murders, people do. So why do people kill other people? We can see what the motives have been in the chart below.
We can easily see that there are large categories of causes for murder/ mass murder. Mental Illness, Major life changes, Stress, Relligion motivators, and conflicts all seem to be triggers for murders. All of these things are addressable. We can detect mental illness sooner and help the affected person. We can have programs to help people through times of loss, conflict, and difficulties. We can address religious, political, and bias motivators. No complete set of bans or controls can be put in place to lower to rate of murders. People will still commit them regardless of what is available to commit them with. People can be dealt with. Things that trigger people who commit murder can be dealt with. There have been some advancements in recent years. Medications for mental illness have improved. Programs to teach people how to deal with life changes have been implemented. Religious leaders can be approached about triggers coming from religious doctrines or bias. Much can be improves yet. So how are we doing right now. See the chart below and you will see that world wide we are on a trend of less murder overall.
