<p>I think you’d find that one down in the 'teens, as to why each murderer did it, Consolation. At least, in the US. </p>
<p>I doubt though, that an in-depth discussion of crime stats is going to be anymore tasteful to those who’ve found the thread generally unpleasant in the whole.</p>
<p>As the stream of unfathomable killing events continues … Oklahoma City, Columbine, 9/11, Tucson, Ft. Hood, Aurora, Newtown, and now Duncan … it may be time to consider these in an epidemiological context. If the events are truly random … lightning strikes, if you will … then it’s only a matter of time before an individual with REAL killing ability decides to act. If they are not random, it sure would be nice to know what prompts them. JMHO.</p>
<p>Newhope you don’t understand SYG laws even a little bit. Every person I’ve talked to who didn’t like SYG laws at all, quickly changes their minds when they realize how it really works. You have to completely against allowing someone to protect themselves against a potential murderer to really be against SYG laws. You either take away the ability to defend yourself against LETHAL force all the time, or you realize that you have to draw the line where it is in SYG laws.</p>
<p>[Investigators</a> believe 8-year-old intentionally killed 90-year-ol - WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports](<a href=“Investigators believe 8-year-old intentionally killed 90-year-old woman”>Investigators believe 8-year-old intentionally killed 90-year-old woman)</p>
<p>[Arrest</a> made in Spokane beating death of WWII vet Delbert Belton - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/us/world-war-vet-beating-death/index.html]Arrest”>http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/us/world-war-vet-beating-death/index.html)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.wmctv.com/story/23235083/police-man-doused-with-gasoline-set-on-fire-in-vacant-lot?app&hpt=ju_bn4[/url]”>http://www.wmctv.com/story/23235083/police-man-doused-with-gasoline-set-on-fire-in-vacant-lot?app&hpt=ju_bn4</a></p>
<p>Just a few of today’s new articles. Wonder what tomorrow will bring.</p>
<p>I’m sorry but does the OP ask how teenagers can be that heartless??
the guy isn’t a normal teenager, he’s a psychopath who literally killed someone for fun. Generalizations about teenagers based on him are wildly inappropriate.</p>
<p>“You have to completely against allowing someone to protect themselves against a potential murderer to really be against SYG laws.”</p>
<p>Missed the sarcasm, did we? BTW, every shooter feels justified when pulling the trigger.</p>
<p>Exactly, Deblerg.</p>
<p>So what do we do?</p>
<p>Kill him?
Lock him away for life?
Lock him away for some amount of time?
Or do we believe someone who did something so heinous can be rehabilitated.</p>
<p>I think we know that prison, as it is set up now, is not a deterrent to crime. I think we are pretty sure you can’t reform a psychopath. Not so sure at what point you can declare a true psychopath…</p>
<p>I have no idea. </p>
<p>We do know murders in the US are at about the same rate as in 1966.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/murder-rates-nationally-and-state[/url]”>http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/murder-rates-nationally-and-state</a></p>
<p>I tried to edit my post on those numbers</p>
<p>It is actually pretty striking if you look at the graph in my last link. Murder rates have declined greatly since the 1970s.</p>
<p>What has increased is the 24/7 news cycle and its infiltration into every aspect of our lives. There have always been people committing heinous crimes like the ones we have been reading about this week. We just didn’t hear about them.</p>
<p>If you study Latin, you learn that back in the Roman Republic, meaning in the centuries before Caesar and Augustus, there were arguments about the decline of society, the corruption of its morals and particularly the decline in the quality of language. This in a society unimaginably brutal to modern eyes.</p>
<p>Think the crime rate going down has anything to do with locking up 3.8x more people than in 1980?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’d be willing to bet that you would find virtually NO humanists are killers.</p>
<p>Sally and Lergnom, I completely agree about the 24/7 news cycle and the age-old phenomenon of which this is a part. And of course, if we go back to Ancient Greece, even before Rome, we find precisely the same thing.</p>
<p>“Murder rates have declined greatly since the 1970s.” >>> “Think the crime rate going down has anything to do with locking up 3.8x more people than in 1980?”</p>
<p>Murder rate down 65% with only 3.8x more persons incarcerated? If that’s a stable relationship, the US can get down to Australia’s per-capita murder rate by incarcerating an additional 21-fold persons. Another $2Trillion/Year ought to do it! (I’m beginning to see the appeal of the Minority Report approach.)</p>
<p>Let’s lock up everyone and crime will go to zero. Whoohoo.</p>
<p>Actually I didn’t miss anything Newhope, the sarcasm came across as hate towards SYG laws which is exactly what I was responding to. :-)</p>
<p>Sarcasm implies hate? Wow. Who knew?</p>
<p>This is a frightening story</p>
<p>“Newhope you don’t understand SYG laws even a little bit. Every person I’ve talked to who didn’t like SYG laws at all, quickly changes their minds when they realize how it really works. You have to completely against allowing someone to protect themselves against a potential murderer to really be against SYG laws. You either take away the ability to defend yourself against LETHAL force all the time, or you realize that you have to draw the line where it is in SYG laws.”</p>
<p>Nonsense. There are self defense laws which provide immunity from prosecution when the situation warrants.</p>
<p>Self defense/syg, I accidently left out self defense. All SYG does is make it to where you don’t have to flee or try to flee before you defend yourself. You could also add in the castle doctrines as well to that group.</p>
<p>And these laws are a mess, raiders. It doesn’t take much searching to find numerous examples. Here’s one from this past week.</p>
<p>[Cops:</a> Toddler killed by grandfather near Lilburn | <a href=“http://www.ajc.com%5B/url%5D”>www.ajc.com](<a href=“http://www.ajc.com/news/news/child-3-critical-after-being-shot-in-gwinnett/nZTsr/]Cops:”>http://www.ajc.com/news/news/child-3-critical-after-being-shot-in-gwinnett/nZTsr/)</a></p>