Why is the rates of gun crime so much higher in the USA than Europe?

Question

....come to think of it...why is crime so much higher in the USA per head than Europe?

It's not "God Bless America" BUT GOD HELP AMERICA!!!!!!

I have been on this site for 3 months and I've just read the funniest thing I have EVER read on the internet: "America is more free than Europe." LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

I think it is because of the availability of "guns and ammo" in the United States. Over here in Europe, well, Ireland anyway, we don't seem to have many gangs, there is not a lot of gun activity. We like Knives and Stanley Blades a little bit more. But saying that, there have been a lot more shootings here in the past 10 years. When I was younger, you might only here of two or three murders in the whole country per year on the news. Ooh, How times have changed. As we say, "One Bullet, Bang! Bang!"

Answer 2

From your own source: "Recorded violent crime has more than doubled in the eight years between 1998/99 and 2006/07. The Home Office attributes this increases in recording of violent crime following the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) in April 2002. " So...it seems the apparent huge increase in violent crime is more a matter of what they are counting rather than a shift in criminal behavior. The US has more gun deaths per year than the rest of the develop world all together. Most of those other nations have highly restricted access to guns. Yet you claim we don't need to make any changes to restrict access to guns. Try again.

Answer 3

Hi,

The answer to your question is very simple...there are more crimes involving firearms because guns are far easier to obtain in the USA than they are in any country in Europe.

However, that is not the whole story...I read (four or five years ago) that every year in Central Park, New York, that between 50 and 60 people were murdered. This is in a very small area...in the same year mentioned there were a total of 54 people killed in the whole of the British Isles.

The obvioous answer to this very real imbalance is that criminals in the USA find it easier to threaten with or use a gun, because it is so much easier to own one. There is a secondary factor...watching programs like 'Cops' and similar on satellite TV I have observed that if someone is running from the police they are very likely to be shot at.

In 'Worst Police Videos' almost every week there are drivers of stolen cars who are fired upon by the police in an attempt to make them stop.

Now if I was a criminal, and wished to escape capture and I was running away knowing a policeman was liable to aim a gun at my back and shoot me I would be very likely to want to even up the odds and carry my own gun, so I could shoot first.

This trait is very evident.

Despite thee often defended constitutional promise to allow people to carry guns I believe a huge drop in gun crime would occur if the easy right to buy was taken away. I certainly do not want the right to buy to be made easier in either the UK, or in Spain, where I now live. I feel safe in Britain, where the police, generally are not armed and I feel safe here in Spain, where the police ARE armed, but I know the general population is not liable to be carrying loaded guns around.

As to the general level of crime in the USA and Europe I really don't know the comparative figures, but I can feel safe, as does my wife, in walking the streets in my town at night...there is no criminal activity normally. We have had one robbery this year, the first since 2005, when a man was mugged and robbed. This was not done by a resident of our town, but by a Rumanian immigrant (yes-he's now a European! and they got him!) who, as a group, make up a very high percentage of criminals here in Spain, despite their fairly low numbers.

People of a certain type, and general conditions, combine to make a criminal class. Perhgaps the large ethnic minority groups, who feel discriminated against in the USA are responsible for 'fighting back' against their real or imagined lack of wealth and maybe this is the reason for the high level of crime.

People 'turning their backs' is a big factor in many criminals 'getting away with it'.

Cheers,

BobSpain

Answer 4

I'm not sure that is correct. England for instance has had a 38% increasee in gun crime since they banned guns while the US has had a much slower rate of increase. Almost all of that increas has come in places like New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Washington DC, and LA. These are places with dense populations and very strict gun laws.

Answer 5

Let's start with the fact that we have over 300 million people in the USA which is near the same as Europe. Secondly because we have more freedoms than Europeans and thirdly let's balance this with the question, "How many lives have been saved in the US because of guns?" Now we have a debate.

Answer 6

It probably has a lot to do with the availability of guns in the US, and gun lobbies, such as the NRA.

And the guarantees of the second amendment, which meant more at the time it was ratified in 1791 than it does today.

I think it is irrelevant that more people might actually be saved from owning a gun than not.

Answer 7

Some simple reasons is because we get guns imported here in the US illegaly. Guns from different countries. Not only they broughten by foreign countries. We got tyrant super market Wal-Mart selling guns and what not because the right to bear arms. I mean, yes we have rappers talking about guns. But the big stores of America like Wal-Mart and others sell these weapons. I mean, we need the right to bear arms. We got to protect ourselves from domestic and foreign dangers. So, we kinda need them, although there's a catch to it. So I hope this helps somewhat. Peace!

Answer 8

It is the right of an American to own a gun, and a responsible owner knows how to use it. Maybe the Europeans do not know how to hit a target well. I think every citizen should be armed and know the ways to use the freedoms given. The European has less rights to possession of weapons, and less experience using one.

Answer 9

Because our criminal justice keeps releasing violent criminals back out to commit more crimes.

Most serious, violent crimes are created by the same small number of people. Our criminal justice system refuses to put these people away for good. Our jails are full of drug users. These drug users should be put to work as domestic help for our politicians. That would give them incentive to make something of themselves. Working for big-time criminals, they could graduate to more lucrative criminal enterprises.

But getting back to your question, why do the courts keep letting these people out? The answer is, our politicians use crime to justify taking our liberties away from us. At the same time, they use terrorism to further erode our Bill of Rights.

Answer 10

Gun crime may be higher but we have lower overall crime rate, partially due to law abiding people with guns.

"Gun crime" is virtually nil in China. What a "free" place to live.