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Last Topic: 1:37:25am, 03/31/2024
Last Post: 4:38:05pm, 04/19/2023
Muscles posted...
When did America start having a gun problem and what changed? Because we always had a lot of guns but there wasn't always a gun problem
Well... there kind of was, it just wasn't talked about as much. The last time the US murder rate was below 4.0 per 100k (i.e. where every other developed country currently sits) was the turn of last century. It climbed steadily from ~1910 to the 1930s, when it nearly reached 10.0 per 100k, then dropped to roughly half that level during the war years, where it stayed (minus a brief spike in 1945 when the troops came home) until the mid 1960s, when it started climbing again.
That mid-60s mark is probably the genesis of the current gun crime wave, as the homicide rate soared in the 1970s and was persistently high throughout the 80s and 90s, fluctuating between 8.0 and 11.0 per 100k. So, believe it or not, the current era actually represents an improvement (but don't get too excited - homicide rate has been on the rise for the last five years).
Notably, however, the 1970s was also the point where the NRA dropped its role encouraging responsible gun ownership and safe gun handling (believe it or not, it used to be highly regarded for its gun safety stances) and moved to its current aggressive "pro-gun everything" status. The Republicans, similarly, shifted to a very anti-regulatory stance and gun control legislation that had uncontroversially been on the books for years was steadily stripped away, with deadly results.
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Kill 1 man: You are a murderer. Kill 10 men: You are a monster.
Kill 100 men: You are a hero. Kill 10,000 men, you are a conqueror!