Well, that constitutes something cultural.

How is that new policy working out in Texas? It's an interesting fact ... but, alone, it doesn't show anything. Are the lower death counts of the European incidents sidhekin compares to U.S. incidents due to hostages facing down the killers? Are they due to potential killers being less likely to go postal in the face of a culture more indoctrinated to resistance - is there any way we can show that? What proportion of the total homicide rates are the maximum single-incident death rates in Europe or the U.S. respectively? What about the guy in Nagasaki who shot the mayor this week with a registered gun?

There are too many variables. Where do they all fit? How can we even track them?

Without information we don't have - including information we can't possibly get (How do you measure the number of madmen who don't create hostage situations, to compare it to that of those who do?) - I think my comments stand. But they don't say, let's stand by without doing anything. They say, we have to admit that we can't do everything.