Why is the US such a violent place?

[Gem]

In response to your assumptions

1. We are not allowed to "beat" our children. Beating is against the law. Spanking within reason is up to the individual.

2. Criminals do not have legal guns. And funny, gun crimes and murder are rising in England. So, just like we have always said, if guns are outlawed then only the criminal and the cops will have guns. Now that is scary. And please explain Canada to me.

3. Ethnic make up of the population, wtf? Don't see how this is relevant one way or the other.

4. Educational system. OK, you got me there, but I have read posts from people from all over the world and America is not the only country producing "educated" idiots.

5. Religious fundamentalists. OK, second part I agree with, they have already turned us socialist and are doing their part to make it worse. Soon we will be Europe without the great time off and health care.

6. Free market capitalism is not the problem. Lobbyists in government who make laws to help their rich corporation buddies are what the problem is. Capitalism is a great thing. Biased capitalism is a nightmare.

7. Break down of the family & family values, no, more like break down of teaching responsibility for your own actions and the "my kid wouldn't do that" attitude. Funny, those are both mainly found in 2 parent homes.

8. Divorce and single parents. See answer to #7.

9. Pornography. You have got to be kidding me, you ever seen German or Japanese porn? We can't even show boobies on TV yet cross the border into Canada and they show up all over. It ain't porn's fault my friend.

And watching BBC shows me that we don't have violence cornered. Every country on earth has violence, hell even the Vatican has propagated child molestation.

Finally, the greater part of the US is not violent. We are a huge nation and what you see on TV is not a good and accurate representation of life for the majority of us.