Originally posted by Proper KnobA lot of that coincides with the increase in "shall issue" concealed weapons laws, and the increase in gun ownership. Not that such relationships indicate any causal relationship.
You do realise that since the mid 70's the US murder rate has halved? Violent crime has also decreased in the last 20 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States
Originally posted by normbenignI thought the data showed that over the last 30 years the number of gun owners and percentage of households with guns had declined?!
A lot of that coincides with the increase in "shall issue" concealed weapons laws, and the increase in gun ownership. Not that such relationships indicate any causal relationship.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/31/politics/gun-ownership-declining/index.html?iref=allsearch
Curiously the number of guns owned has gone up.
Originally posted by whodeyWell not unless you actually believe that Americans are a different species, otherwise the need for religion in order to achieve a relatively orderly and non violent/moral society should be evidenced in the experience of other culturally similar human societies.
Yes, but this thread it about America spanky.
The UK govt is constantly scouring the Globe for examples of 'Best Practice' relating to all kinds of societal issues.
Originally posted by Proper KnobHere is an interesting article from the Huffington post. I just love the all truth lefty news sources, don't you?
You do realise that since the mid 70's the US murder rate has halved? Violent crime has also decreased in the last 20 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/19/violent-crime-statistics_n_970461.html
According to Harold Copus, a former FBI agent, crime rates almost always increase after an economic down turn but violent crime has decreased since 2008. He suspects that the numbers, which the FBI takes from various cities, are therefore not accurate. He thinks that more than likely what is going on is that these cities are trying to cook the numbers so as to encourage tourism in an economic down turn.
All I know is that people don't feel as safe as they did 50 years ago. People could not lock their doors at night and did not think twice about sending their children to the movies or to school. In fact, children used to be able to roam the neighborhood without their parents hovering over them to see if they are safe.
The numbers just don't jive.
Violent crime increased dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s in the US and into the early 90s and has been decreasing since, but has not gotten back to the 1950s level. PK's wiki link confirms this.
Just to take one example, New York City had more than 2,200 homicides in 1990. These years, the number seems to hover around 500; a decrease of more than 75% in 20 years. But even so, rates were lower back in the 1950s.
The trend in the rest of the country, while not as stark, is somewhat similar.
So, while crime has been decreasing since the late 1980s/ early 1990s, whodey is not incorrect to say that crime rates are still higher than they were in the 1950s.
Originally posted by whodeyI can go to bed at night without locking my door. I guess your brand of christianity is really popular here (hint: it's not).
All I know is that prayer was taken out of schools in 1962. The mass shooting epidemic began in the mid 1960's.
Why do you think that was? In addition, is the moral fiber of people today better than before my version of God had been stripped from society? Could you go to bed at night without so much as locking your door?
And you are right, even if yo ...[text shortened]... o I suppose the one with all the political power wins and should man up and they should own it.
I must commend you whodey, out of all the absurd things you have posted on this forum, a causal link between lack of prayer in schools and mass shootings must rank way up there in ridiculousness.
Of course, violent crime is not the only issue here.
I brought this up on another thread.
http://heartofwisdom.com/blog/when-prayer-was-taken-out-of-schools/
A book was written about the changes society had taken after prayer was taken out of schools. In it, statistics are provided about such things as increasing teen pregnancy rates, homes headed by single mothers, STD rates, and decresasing SAT scores.
Either way, the 1960's was a horrible decade. You had LBJ's Veitnam war and subsequent entitlement programs, which the government could not pay for so they switched to a fiat currency so as not to pay for it all. This all led to Roe vs. Wade and further moral decay. You also had the assassination of JFK and his brother and MLK.
Originally posted by whodeyThe question is why do people not feel safer? It's interesting that in the UK, crime; and pretty much all crime, is on the decrease and is at it's lowest rate for 10 years or more. Yet in surveys where people are asked about their perception of crime they think exactly the opposite. Crime is going down yet they think things are getting worse.
Here is an interesting article from the Huffington post. I just love the all truth lefty news sources, don't you?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/19/violent-crime-statistics_n_970461.html
According to Harold Copus, a former FBI agent, crime rates almost always increase after an economic down turn but violent crime has decreased since 2008. He su ...[text shortened]... out their parents hovering over them to see if they are safe.
The numbers just don't jive.