NY's Problem: Illegal Guns, or Culture of Violence?

Almost 50 people were shot in a "violence-filled" weekend in New York. Mayor Bloomberg says its because there's too many illegal guns on the street (at least he specifies that the guns are illegal, not just guns), but really, is that the problem? I daresay if the people who perpetrated these crimes didn't have guns, they would have attacked with knives or bare fists instead. It's not the fact that guns are out there that's the problem, it's that too many people have grown up in a culture of violence where the only way to solve any problem is to kill or beat up the other person involved.

That's what needs to be fixed - somehow.

Almost 50 shot in violence-filled weekend in New York

After a bloody holiday weekend that left dozens shot in New York City -- including two police officers and at least one innocent victim who died of her wounds -- Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Tuesday lashed out at lawmakers in Washington for not doing enough to get illegal guns off the nation's streets.

"It is a matter of life and death," Bloomberg said while standing outside a Brooklyn hospital about 1:30 a.m. as the two police officers were being treated. Neither suffered life-threatening injuries but three other people died in the incident. They included the shooter, who was shot by police; the shooter's target; and a 56-year-old woman hit by a stray bullet as she sat with her daughter on her apartment building's stoop, police said.

The shootings occurred a few blocks from an annual parade celebrating Caribbean culture, where earlier in the day at least other four people suffered gunshot wounds.

Also over the weekend, an early Sunday shooting at party in the Bronx left eight people wounded, and four people were shot early Monday in Brooklyn. Altogether, 46 people were shot in various parts of the city during the long weekend, according to the New York Post.

New York state has some of the country's strictest laws governing the purchase and carrying of guns, something Bloomberg said has helped reduce crime in the nation's largest city. "But we cannot do it alone," he said. "This is a national problem requiring national leadership, but at the moment neither end of Pennsylvania Avenue has the courage to take basic steps that would save lives."

According to the FBI's latest crime statistics, firearms were used in 67.1% of the nation's murders and 42.6 percent of robberies.

__________
My Schedule of Regular Posts:
*Monday through Friday morning - schedules of President, VP and Secretary of State and her diplomats
*Monday through Friday afternoon - List of topics Limbaugh discussed on his program that day
*Monday through Friday throughout the day - My posts on anything that I feel like talking about. At least one or two a day, sometimes more.
*Saturday through Sunday morning - An addition to my booklist of political books - covering Democrats, Republicans and other interested parties.