| The Fury said: There lies an issue with culture in the USA in general. The USA seems dependent on guns. You can't just remove them which is why people are asking for tigher controls. Even a law-abiding citizen can still get a gun with tigher controls because they'll pass the controls. Criminals won't care as they'll get the guns regardless but with tighter controls, it'll be harder (more expensive) and that's what you should be aiming for. |
Or instead of focusing on roundabout ways to make guns expensive (increasing the profitability of their sale -> expanding the illegal market) we can just focus on the main cause of the violent crime - rethinking drug prohibition. As I said in another post, 63% of gun crime is criminal on criminal, and 49% of homicides are by gang members. Instead of treating drug usage as a criminal offense, we'd go a long way by decriminalizing it and focusing on rehabilitation of drug addicts. This would reduce the profitability and dependence on gangs for the lives of many minorities, keep families intact, and reduce income inequality between races. It would bring vigor back to the lives of inner-city black populations, and within a generation we can expect homicide rates to approach European levels (as they are already consistently declining - by 50% for example from 1990.)
Another thing to consider is the demographics of the U.S versus Europe. European countries have older populations that don't murder. That is probably the main reason why homicide rates have declined since the 1950's in all countries, more than anything else. With the post-war booms there were young people who commit crimes, and now there are older people. The U.S has a median age four years younger than Europe, and isn't so old-age heavy. The effect is even more pronounced if we look at specific countries in Europe and states in the U.S.
Here is a great article on the correlation between Age Structure and Homicide Rates.
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~japhill/JRCD_2006.pdf
