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Your Killing Me

Murder in the US of A

It came up during a conversation with one of my friends. We were talking about this week's mass shooting incident. This is a touchy subject for us. He is a concealed carry gun owner. I am not. I believe in common sense gun control. He does not.

I mentioned that the Texas Shooter could have killed more people if someone had not begun shooting at him. My point was that because the shooter had an automatic weapon he was able to kill 26 people and not even going inside the church.

His answer was what about Chicago? I don't know what Chicago's homicide rate has to do with a mass shooting in Texas, but I said what about it. He answered more people were killed in Chicago that weekend than the Texas shooter killed in his attack on the church.

I checked. The toll of people killed in the City of Chicago this year is 606. The death count, for the month November 2017, is twenty-one. I do not know where my pal got his number. Homicides for this quarter in Chicago is lower than 2016.
http://crime.chicagotribune.com/chicago/homicides

What surprised me was that on a chart rating of the 30 cities with highest murder rate per 1000 people, none of the major cities are listed. (NYC, Chicago, LA, Dallas ...etc.) Sadly, Milwaukee, WI is 29th.
https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/blog/highest-murder-rate-cities

Now as to the relevance of Chicago's homicide rate v. One man and an automatic weapon in Texas.
We know the guy in Texas had mental issues. We know he had a conviction for Domestic violence and contacts with police on other issues. We know the military failed to put critical information into the system that might have prevented this offender from buying a gun legally. My guess is this guy like many of these misguided and troubled people, committed this act with the full knowledge that he was going to die. How many of these shooters have been killed by police or commit suicide?

Set that next to a group of people in a city like Chicago or Milwaukee who are hopelessly trapped in a crime-filled neighborhood. Their hope for a future with good jobs, schools, and future is minimal at best. The gang world of the city, particularly one that is functioning in the free market illegal drug trade, is a dog eat dog environment. This is not an excuse for people killing other people, but it sure explains a lot about why people do it. What is deeply different is we have exhibited damn little will to do anything about either of these things



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