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I have read on here comments about the correlation of media and violence, video games and violence, and many people who believe life is as black & white as less guns equals less violence using other countries as examples. Well....International comparisons almost invariably compare the United States with some country with stronger gun control laws and lower murder rates. But, if facts really mattered at all you could easily compare the United States to countries with stricter gun control laws and higher murder rates - Brazil and Russia, for example. You could compare the United States with countries with more widespread gun ownership - Switzerland and Israel, for example - and lower murder rates. Stricter gun control laws do not solve the problem, if they did, then why do Brazil and Russia have higher murder rates? Gun ownership is also not a decisive factor in rates of murder, as is apparent with Switzerland and Israel, both countries whose citizens own more guns per person than do Americans. So where does this lead us? It leads us to a line of questioning that could shine new light onto an old problem - that there is something inherent within American culture, social elements that exist and exacerbate this type of behavior. Is it external factors such as socioeconomic class, population density, the weather, or internal factors, such as psychological make-up, cultural values, or personal values? Does it have more to do with mental illness, drug use, psychological or physical abuse? Does parental divorce play a role? Or could it be a combination of all of the above? When you start to ask these types of questions blaming tragedies like this solely on guns not only becomes absurd, but perhaps even a lazy excuse that allows people to not acknowledge the fact that owning a gun is not the problem. So all of you who want to hold to the idea that less guns equals less violence, you are wrong. It is not so black & white. Unfortunately, there is too much politics involved, too much money, and any intelligent academic willing to take the time to research this matter would probably ruin his or her career telling the truth, because the truth almost always runs contradictory to the agenda of power elites.