The past is filled with tragedies.

Modern weapons make it easy to kill many people very quickly.

It's because there are so many more guns than back in 82... oh wait, no there isn't.

It is the Signs of the Times playing themselves out.

 

More people, more loonies.  And more news coverage of the loonies.

With all this talk about us evoloving around here....I'm not seeing it. It ain't happening.

We have been evolving, but it's not always going to be in preferred ways.

And more news coverage of the loonies.

That plays a big part in it.  News travels very quickly now, and the news is fixated on violence.

It also depends on where you live.  There hasn't been a murder in the town I live in for over 10 years.  It's not very populated and the culture is very laid back.  However, if I turn on the news, I can hear about the worst of the days events in Detroit.

In the past 10 years, we have lowered crime.  Look at this: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_01a.html

"A comparison of estimates from 2006 and 1997 shows a 13.3-percent decrease in the estimated number of violent crimes and a 13.6-percent decrease in estimated property crime offenses for the 10-year period. "

So, according to the FBI, the trend is not more crime.  I guess we just hear about it more.

 

Karma:

This is true, it does depend on where you live. In Atlanta, I remember talking to friends, telling them about the gun shot patients we treated the night before. Some of them didn't believe me because "if someone was shot last night, it would have made the news".

The fact is, if someone was shot in my friends neighorhoods it would have made the news. If the news tried to cover all the shootings in places like Bankhead Courts or East Lake, they wouldn't have time to report anything else.

It is the Signs of the Times playing themselves out.

That plays a big part in it. News travels very quickly now, and the news is fixated on violence

More people, more loonies. And more news coverage of the loonies.

For me I see all the above as true statements.

Thanks for the info Karma. 1997 must have been a bad year from the looks of it. I'm wondering what was going on in 1997? I did see that murder/manslaughter has gone up +5.0 from 2002 and +1.8 from 2005. So it is increasing in that category during the last few years.

Just heard another story...not sure the details tho. A bit unusual with a woman behind the gun this time.

WOMAN WITH GUN REPORTEDLY OPENS FIRE AT LOUISIANA TECHNICAL COLLEGE

Evolution of a species depends on natural selection. Natural selection is simply a statement that says "whatever individuals survive are going to breed and their genetic material will get passed on and increase the propensity of individuals that are like them." If you look at it this way, increasing crime is just a sign that criminals are surviving to breed - and they are - thanks to lesser education, poor job markets, a weak justice system, and who knows how many other human made factors.

One such factor I can see is that as technology increases, the genetic quality of individuals does less and less to threaten the species, and that serves as an intervention to natural selection which is supposed to favor the "fittest." For example, if some less than bright person walks into the street without looking both ways and gets hit by a car, technology exists now that did not exist in the past (arguably) to patch them up and insure they have a chance to pass on genes that perhaps should not have been passed on. That's a cold statement. I do not wish for the death of the intellectually challenged, but it isn't a stretch to see that the more of them that intelligent people keep alive, the more diluted the intellectual gene pool becomes, and the more murderers and criminals we're going to have - at least on a blue collar level. If someone has some evidence that most murderers are geniuses, let me know because I'll have to rethink all this. White collar crime is, of course, a separate issue.

Our education system in America is an embarrassment, and as Gump said "stupid is as stupid does." Unfortunately, stupid likes to breed a lot, too. The movie "Idiocracy" is worth a watch to see a plausible end game for that fact. The intelligent abstain or utilize birth control so as to not have births they aren't ready for, and the less than intelligent breed like rabbits creating a very UNnatural selection. It was supposed to be a funny movie (though even comedy lovers didn't find it all that funny). I just found it to be frightening. Very frightening because it seemed all too plausible.

We are threatened, therefore, with a kind of de-evolution (which is really just evolution in a less than cheery direction). The number of people we need educated to prevent this de-evolution from reaching a critical mass becomes more frightening every year.

and I'm the addicted one?   

You could have looked it up : http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/hmrttab.htm

No, homicide rates are decreasing.  Here is more info:  http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/hmrt.htm

The problem is that we hear about it more.  The news sensationalizes it.

Your example of 1982 being so different is all in perception.  1982 had a higher homicide rate than we do now.

and I'm the addicted one?

Only you can say I just thought it might be worth looking at.

Well Ock, you do have a point. I'm not totally dismissing you here.

Afterall....God is my all in all.

But with a very big but........after I've tried what the world has to offer. No comparison.