Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Drib
I was catching up on some news from my country (U.S.) and found out about the shooting yesterday in New York.
In doing some research, I found reports that some criminologists believe the increase in mass murders may be related to the recession in the United States.
Quoted from an article in the Irish Times:
"Some criminologists suggest the recent spate of shootings could be linked to the recession and the impact of job losses on personal finances and relationships."
What do you think?
Don
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I think it's somewhat more likely to be related to the US's ludicrously lax laws on gun ownership. The murder rate in the US is 70x that of the UK, per head of population, and the overwhelming majority of those murders are carried out with guns. Gun crime happens in the UK, yes, but it's so rare that it's "headline news". In the US it seems to be so depressingly common that it's barely newsworthy.
The original justification for gun ownership in the US was in order to provide an "armed militia", in the days when the country had no standing army. What possible justification is there for it today?