Odd… By the way politicians talk, you would have thought that the rise of crime was because those dang “assault rifles” got out of the gun shop again. The New York Times reports that now, at the end of summer, some of the nation’s major cities are dealing with a spike in crime. St. Louis? The murder rate is 60% higher than this time last year. In Baltimore, it’s 56% higher. But while the numbers are clear, the reason is not as evident. While some people may want to blame the rise in crime on the unrest that followed the deaths of the likes of Freddie Gray and Michael Brown, Reason Magazine says the rate was rising before and after the unrest, and it’s hard to say whether a violent summer is the beginning of a rise in crime or a statistical blip. Truth be told, it’s hard to attribute a factor for the rise and fall of crime. Leftists blame guns for spikes or credit gun control for lulls. Some think a rise in abortions cull potential criminals. But as Garry McCarthy, police superintendent in Chicago, told The Times, “Across the country, we’ve all found it’s not the individual who never committed a crime before suddenly killing somebody. It’s the repeat offenders. It’s the same people over and over again.” From around the country, other law enforcement officers told the Gray Lady that they are facing a culture of violence, a group of people willing to settle disagreements over relationships, food or Facebook comments with violence rather than debate.