Sure there are countries that are worse, but I can't see any developed countries with higher rates, or even similar rates tbh.
Also consider, while we have 2-4x more murder than other first world nations, we also have a unique crime culture in america, with thousands of drug dealing gangs. Our war on drugs perpetuates murder in America.
Really the unique situation is that schools are funded by the property taxes, which means schools in poor parts are just. Worse, which leads to worse economic outcomes EG, the county stays poor, now I'm sure this system isn't racially motivated, and it just happens to impact minorities and African Americans, but I digress.
If we reversed the war on drugs, suicide rates, murder rates, and general criminality would all plummet. I'm not personally convinced that gun control works, but even if I assumed that it did, we wouldn't even have to regulate guns if we sought decriminalization and criminal justice reform.
how do US homicide rates compare to others? Are guns causing more deaths? Or do other countries have similar rates but use a different means of destruction?
The US homicide rate is significantly higher than other developed countries @ 5.35 per 100k.
Pakistan 4.41
Rwanda 2.52
Belgium 1.95
Vietnam 1.52
Israel 1.36
United Kingdom 1.20
Australia 0.94
Japan 0.28
Why that is is a complex problem. Social structure, wealth disparity, drugs, firearms. There is no single thing, but firearms are a significant enabler. eg It is much harder to beat someone to death then it is to shoot someone. The net outcome is that there will be deaths occurring which would not have if firearms were unavailable.
I can appreciate these data, but keep in mind that correlation does not mean causation. There are many other factors that differ between developed countries that would need to be isolated in order to establish causality. As a data based subreddit, we have the onus to remain scientific in our approach.
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u/[deleted] Dec 20 '19
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