Uk homicides 2017: 709.
US homicides 2017: 17,284.
Guns.... aren’t really a factor. The US has a disproportionately high murder rate compared to England. London has about 9 million people living 607 square miles. New York packs about 300,000 less people into a space of 468 square miles.... briefly London overtook the murder rate in New York without having access to guns. The issue is a touch more complex than this implies.
Places like Chicago and Washington have the most strict gun control laws and statistically the most violent crimes in the nation per capita. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with said regulation, just saying @guest_ is correct that it's much more of a complex issue. I'm a lot more likely to be stabbed in the UK than I am in the US. I'm also much more likely to be killed with an IED or grenade in Sweden than anywhere else in the world that isnt an active war zone. Every country has its issues so... people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, you know?
Well said. Another overlooked fact on the issue is crime in general. Yes. America has a much higher murder rate than many other developed nations. But... America also has much higher crime and incarceration rates than most of the developed world. In 2017 the US saw about 10 million arrests compared the about 600,000 in England and Wales. The whole UK has a prison population of 83,000 people vs The US at over 2.3 million.
When we compare we can see that with a narrow focus on a single type of crime we miss a much larger picture that general crime, arrest, and incarceration are MUCH higher in the US. It is hard to imagine pinning drunk driving and petty theft and drugs and a host of other offenses on a single superficial culprit. There is MUCH more to the picture than the simplified view people like to take.
There is also in addition to that a matter of perspective and spin. The US bemoans it’s opioid crisis- despite the UK having a much higher recorded incidence of opioid abuse. But.... does that mean more people in the UK abuse opioid... or that you are more likely to get away with drug abuse in the US? We can frame the statistic however we like when we do not examine it with context.
US homicides 2017: 17,284.
Guns.... aren’t really a factor. The US has a disproportionately high murder rate compared to England. London has about 9 million people living 607 square miles. New York packs about 300,000 less people into a space of 468 square miles.... briefly London overtook the murder rate in New York without having access to guns. The issue is a touch more complex than this implies.