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发帖数: 29846 | 1 By: David Harsanyi Follow @DavidHarsanyi
7/20/2012 03:46 PM
Listening to the crush of media coverage and the sickening politicization of
the murders in Colorado, we should not let it escape our attention that
despite all the violence and sadness brought on by this event — I lived in
Denver for years, and I’ve taken my children to the Aurora theater, so I
get it — most of us live in a far safer place than our parents.
All day, I’ve watched television pundits talk about the country as if we
were saturated in non-stop violence. The simple fact is that over the past
decades we have become a more peaceful place. Steven Pinker’s fascinating
book “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined” is a
macro view of this historical worldwide trend, but during my lifetime, crime
rates and gun violence have fallen – dramatically.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 1994, the United States
hit an ugly peak with 13,981 murders by hand gun. By 2005, the last year the
study is available on the site, the number was 8,478. Death by other guns
also decreased from 3,094 to 2,868 during that time.
In 2010 there were 14,748 “murder and nonnegligent manslaughters” in the
United States. That’s the lowest number since 1969. Even during this
recession, crime has kept falling for the most part, and baffling experts.
Nothing can stop a sick person bent on murder. But all the scaremongering
about guns and crime doesn’t reflect reality. |
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