A second look at that chart - it is violent crime per GDP. But the numbers are apparently per 100,000 people. My numbers are annual violent crimes per person.

tw, there's no such thing as violent crimes per GDP. Come on, what the hell is that, really?

Replace GDP with per person. Forgot what the technical expression is.

lol

A competing instinct is "A terrible thing has occurred! And the most important thing is, IT'S TOO SOON TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!!" And every subsequent event resets the TOO SOON timer.

Yes, I forgot that. We need time to grieve. Emotions are too high right now. Let's wait till things settle down.

That runs counter to Saul Alinsky's tactics, which were required reading at UC Berkeley. "Never let a good crisis go to waste."

Another one last night - if you're not part of the solution i'm sure you're happy.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/deadly-shoo...ry?id=34363113

In 2013 there were 8,454 homicides with a gun. Cops estimates 80% of those are gang/drug related, which are mostly in urban slums. Other people have a 0.000530%, or 1:188,700, chance of being killed with gun. Each year you statistically have a greater chance dying falling down stairs 1:180,000, or riding a bicycle 1:140,000.

See the problem? Numbers can be manipulated to support any position. Gun violence is something most people only see on TV news. It couldn’t happen here in my safe town/city. When it does, it’s a horrible thing, until the media assails you with the next horrible thing.

Looking at it practically, I read the other day the US has more guns than people, worth how many Trillions of dollars? How do you get rid of them? Pass a law like prohibition? Certainly the police must be exempted, and the Secret Service, maybe politicians. How about doctors, lawyers, or Indian chiefs?

Maybe a war on guns, since the wars on drugs, poverty, etc, worked so well. Until it’s no longer a political football, fuhgedaboudit.

Nobody really cares if the gangs and thugs kill each other off, but when their warfare spills over into the world of the regular folks, then it's a problem.

If somebody is being mugged for drug money and it goes wrong and they get killed, then do the cops dismiss that as drug related, or is that a real crime?

It's hard to avoid giving a very sarcastic reply; but that is just not true.

"happy" ? I don't think anyone is happy, but ...

Hang on - you don't get a choice as to whether you were born with a vagina or not.
I'm not sure the same can be said for guns.

I mean, your country, your laws, none of my business, but I just thought it was worth mentioning.

Ever heard of Caitlyn Jenner? Was she born with one? Methinks not.

I'm sorry, but those two things do not equate. If you're not a driver, you shouldn't make laws about cars? Maybe, I could go with that. If you've never taught, you sholdn't make education law? Fine.

But having a gun and having a fucking vagina are not the same thing.

One gender making laws about what the other gender can do with their body is not the same as a set of people who don't own some things, making laws about whether someone else can own those things.

There are plenty of good arguments against gun control, and clearly there is some kind of identity level shit going on with gun control, but equating rights over vaginas and rights over guns is ridiculous and icky. Seriously, that shit makes my skin crawl.