4 ms·

Guns are ubiquitous in Canada, but violent crime rates are dramatically lower. The US murder rate is 2.5 times greater than Canada's.* I'm sure there are sever

Guns are ubiquitous in Canada, but violent crime rates are dramatically lower. The US murder rate is 2.5 times greater than Canada's.* I'm sure there are several reasons for this. There are two differences between US and Canadian society that I suspect could be important. First, the wealth divide is much greater in the US than in Canada (or the UK). Social programs look out for the poor and reduce their desperation. Second, the US almost uniformly rejects drug treatment as an alternative to long incarceration. Sending drug addicts to prison is just going to train them to become proper criminals. *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Canada#United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Canada#United_States

yummyfajitas 19y ago
Another important fact, which is politically incorrect to mention. About 66% of the murders in the US are committed by a demographic group that is unique to the US (1). If you exclude that group, our murder rate is cut in half. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_03.html http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/offenses/expanded_informatio... (1) I'm know the racial group exists in both Canada and the UK. The demographic group (race+culture) is uncommon in Canada, and virtually nonexistent in the UK. When looking at the statistics, I'm assuming the 28% of murders with unknown perp are distributed the same as those with a known perp.