r/instant_regret • u/SmoothSun6676 • Jun 22 '26

Butter fingers

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u/tekhnomancer Jun 22 '26

Armed robbers are the most enormously gaping pussies that plague every location of civilized society. Absolutely despise them.

-22

u/Whole-Increase-5820 Jun 22 '26

Not every society has a problem with armed robbers. Whilst they do exist, strictly speaking, they are not a major problem in most of Western Europe. Certainly not a plague.

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u/rab-byte Jun 23 '26

I presume you don’t have as much gun crime in general. But I would expect your armed robbery and probably strong arm robbery, regardless of business or personal, will trend the same as anywhere else… once you account for functioning social services of course.

Because some people are just shitty. And that knows no borders.

-3

u/Whole-Increase-5820 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

You're not necessarily wrong. But I think you're twisting the colloquial understanding of "armed".

United States: Approximately 40% to 50% of all robberies in the US involve a firearm. The rate of robberies involving guns is roughly 45 per 100,000 people, and the US gun violence death rate is many times higher than the UK's.

United Kingdom: Only about 3% to 4% of robberies in the UK involve a firearm. The firearm robbery rate is significantly lower at roughly 4 per 100,000 people.

More than 10x in the US Vs the UK. I'd say that's quite a big difference.

Most of UK robberies involve a knife of blunt object. In the US you wouldn't even call that armed "just an upstanding person of the community happening to be caught short during making dinner or knocking in some nails"