…has been an artifact of politically motivated Soviet minimization designed to hide the true homicide rates. Since well before that date, the Soviet Union possessed extremely stringent gun controlsthat were effectuated by a police state apparatus providing stringent enforcement. Yet, manifest success in keeping its people disarmed did not prevent the Soviet Union from having far and away the highest murder rate in the developed world.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the gun-less Soviet Union’s murder rates paralleled or generally exceeded those of gun-ridden America. (*)
While American rates stabilized and then steeply declined, however, Russian murder increased so drastically that by the early 1990s the Russian rate was three times higher than that of the United States. Between 1998‐2004 (the latest figure available for Russia), Russian murder rates were nearly four times higher than American rates.”
(*) Which is REALLY saying something, as those of us who were alive then (and are still alive now) could tell you.
Some of us could also tell you that in that same era, Soviet propaganda about American violence was also rampant.
Anyway: I rarely say “read the whole thing” but…
