Violence and America


 I've been looking into violence, domestic terror, mass shootings, suicide, and murder rates and all that since about 2014. And started looking into it a little earnestly in 2020. A couple college papers helped focus that. Working in suicide management also kept that focus alive. 

I'm not an expert. This isn't a primary research topic. I just have done a lot of research, and I think it's important we look at data at times like these. And also expand our scope of what we are looking at beyond the past week. Or even 12 weeks. 

First we need to note that political violence is part of our historical and modern fabric.

 https://www.thebulwark.com/p/a-history-of-violence-17a?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true

Second political violence while common and consistent in our history is still rare. 

https://www.cato.org/blog/politically-motivated-violence-rare-united-states

But it is rising. It is becoming more common over the last decade

https://www.csis.org/analysis/escalating-terrorism-problem-united-states

https://www.csis.org/analysis/rising-threat-anti-government-domestic-terrorism-what-data-tells-us

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/u.s.-domestic-terrorism-is-increasingly-motivated-by-partisan-politics

https://www.csis.org/analysis/minnesota-attack-latest-rising-wave-political-violence

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2025/09/12/is-radical-left-violence-really-on-the-rise-in-america

And with all of that we still have more homicides and mass shootings than any other developed nation.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5?locations=OE

https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/public-mass-shootings-database-amasses-details-half-century-us-mass-shootings

What are we going to be doing about that?

I don't have the answers but I think we meed to all look at some data and do some quiet reflection. If we can't agree on the facts we can never address them.

So let's look at facts. Let's be sober minded and have real rigorous conversations about what to do.





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