Obama care

[Jackalope]

Frankly, the Old West was a lot less violent than the New West.

(This segue on homicide / violent crime / gun control probably ought to be split off if discussion continues, and I'll do so if it does.)

Wanted to follow up on this. I had heard what you quoted before regarding the Old West being relatively less violent than the New West, but had never really looked into it. With my curiosity piqued, I went a-searching and found this:
Homicide Rates in the American West

The above data appears to support the notion that the Old West (mid-19th century and beyond) was a rough place by today's standards, at least in the communities and time periods studied. However, absent contradictory data, for now I'm willing to accept the source (Criminal Justice Research Center at Ohio State) at face value.

Now, with the lack of uniform crime reporting such as we have today, it is difficult to make direct comparisons to modern homicide rates (which, as national averages are not directly comparable). Regional and local rates are probably of more interest, but obviously take longer to dig up. I'm cautious about extrapolating any conclusions from the data presented beyond the communities and time periods covered.

Also found in the search was an article about a study of homicide rates in medieval Europe. This article is only tangentially related to the subject, but I found the explanations as to the stark difference in homicide rates in today's Europe vs. historically to be worth mentioning.

From the above article:

The most widely accepted explanation stems from the work of Norbert Elias, a sociologist who in the late 1930's introduced the idea of a "civilizing process," in which the nobility was transformed from knights into courtiers, bringing in a new set of manners, and the modern state spread its power over the populace.

Other factors cited as probable contributing factors toward reduction in homicide were public education, demographics, and social influences (as in the rapid increase in homicide in the latter half of the 20th century - which thankfully is now substantially lower [4.8/100K in 2010] than at the peak in 1980 [10.2/100K]).

I've been of the belief that violent crime is a complex topic, and is heavily influenced by education, demographics, economic opportunity, cultural values, social equality, and a host of other factors. Much of the developed world (particularly Europe) is very different than the United States. Legal access to firearms is only one of those differences, and in my view, solving the homicide problem in the USA depends on analyzing all of the contributing factors.

As an example, providing greater economic opportunity in the form of increasing minimum wage, providing universal access to health care, improving public education and increasing access to higher education will likely lead to much improvement.

Will more gun control help? Possibly, and that is certainly a debate that will occur. It is my view that without other necessary reforms, we cannot achieve what our peers in the international community have been able to accomplish.