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There is a correlation between economic inequality and personal violence. The explanation for the correlation isn't completely clear; there are a number of possibilities.

Yes, violence begets more violence, but historically this has been the way of the world.

I think that there's something in the American psyche, it's almost this kind of right or privilege, this sense of entitlement, to resolve our conflicts with violence. There's an arrogance to that concept if you think about it. To actually have to sit down and talk, to listen, to compromise, that's hard work.

We are a country of excess. So it's not the violence, per se, but the exacerbation and constant repetition.

The decline of violence isn't a steady inclined plane from an original state of maximal and universal bloodshed. Technology, ideology, and social and cultural changes periodically throw out new forms of violence for humanity to contend with.

Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.

Violence can succeed, as Americans know well from the conquest of the national territory. But at terrible cost. It can also provoke violence in response, and often does.

The decline of violence is a fractal phenomenon. You can see it over millennia, over centuries, over decades and over years.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

I think America is going to have to think through whether it wants to uplift the political dialogue or advance an approach that divides and, frankly, can lead to violence.