Study Finds Correlation Between Lead Exposure and Gun Violence Suspects AND Victims

[rickyrick]

I live across the river from Portland... the homeless problem is incredibly bad trash is everywhere. A lot of it is spilling into Clark County, WA. But the issue isn’t related lead exposure, it is a local government issue. Portland has somewhat of a gang issue, but not as bad as other cities. The trendy population of Portland enjoys the conditions and they like living in the “gritty” city and will get really hopping mad if you mention how dirty the city is.
Lots of Victorian and Craftsman style homes have survived in the Portland area, but I haven’t heard of lead issues. Despite the fact that middle class style homes are priced beyond what I consider affordable to the middle class, people are moving into the region in droves. Gentrification is in full practice, adding to the problem as well.
To top it all off, you have a large police force that no economic, social or political populations has any appreciation of.
Lead may be one factor that leads to higher rates of violence, I suspect that other factors may have a larger contribution to crime rates, and increased lead exposure just happens to line up with the main factors.

 

[davidsog]

We have rampant government corruption, mismanagement and wasteful use of funds.

Yep....

Just like any Banana Republic in the Third World, you can get into "public service" and make millions now.

Gone are the days when the President borrowed money for a battery to drive home after his term and paid the PEOPLE back for it.

I just laugh every time I hear somebody defend Biden and his son for their laundering of millions of taxpayer dollars thru Ukraine.

Sure, it was legal.....

That is the problem.

 

[44 AMP]

Lead may be one factor that leads to higher rates of violence, I suspect that other factors may have a larger contribution to crime rates, and increased lead exposure just happens to line up with the main factors.

Has anyone (besides those of us here) considered the possibility that lead exposure might not be the cause of the violence, but just an environmental factor that is "along for the ride" so to speak?

That other factors are the determining factors and created conditions where greater lead exposure was part of the environment along with "increased violence"??

Determining lead exposer is the cause is an OPINION, and I think one not supported by much, considering that for every violent individual there are literally thousands if not millions of people with exactly the same environmental conditions who do NOT commit violence??

In other words, IF A causes B then why doesn't it cause B in EVERYONE??

Why are we not (completely) a society of mad reavers bent on death and destruction? Some individuals are, but generally ,we are not, which leaves me to doubt the claim that lead is the cause.

I think individual choice, and, to a degree societal "norms" are the determining factors. A century ago, someone using bad language in front of a lady could be physically beaten, and society considered that proper. Today, its assault and they will put you in jail. It was assault then, but nobody cared. That's the kind of thing I mean by societal norms.

Yes, a lot of the hardcore criminals grew up in poor disadvantaged conditions, but so did a lot more people who didn't become criminals.

Environmental conditions are something you can LINK to behavior, something you can co-relate, but stating they are a definitive cause is a conclusion, an opinion, not facts.

Kind of like saying everyone who drinks water, drowns. Not true as far as I can see.

 

[hemiram]

Our neighborhood had a lead study done about 1964-65, I don't remember exactly, but we lived down the street from a really busy road that had thousands of cars and trucks on it every day, and the lead levels in the yards and houses along that road and the people who lived in them, were crazy high, and around 1980, lead levels were remeasured and they had dropped by a huge margin. I don't know if there was any correlation, but it seemed like a lot of the kids who grew up along the "big road" were "problem children". Several have been in and one still is in prison. He has done some incredibly dumb impulsive crimes over the years, and his siblings all have police records. His greatest failure in crime was when he tried to hire two drug addicts to murder his father and stepmom. He wanted their house and $$$. One of the two hitmen got shot while he bravely waited in the car and they soon ratted him out when the one that got shot was ID'ed as one of the shooters after he walked into an ER claiming he had been robbed. He was always high on my list of people I wanted nothing to do with. His latest deal was robbing at gunpoint a pizza shop where they knew him by name. I guess he wanted to go back to prison. He won't get out before he's 72 this time.

 

[davidsog]

Has anyone (besides those of us here) considered the possibility that lead exposure might not be the cause of the violence, but just an environmental factor that is "along for the ride" so to speak?

Sure, We exposed a lot of folks to lead as a RESULT of their violence.