The increase in homicide in the United States since 1985 can be entirely attributed to an increase in killings by young males in our inner cities. Their victims are other young males. The myth that everybody everywhere is in danger has been created by the media and fuels misguided punitive policies. "Drugs" don't cause violence, but the illegal drug business does. And above all we know that the extremely high U.S. rate of lethal criminal violence can be attributed to the easy access to guns, which have become "decoupled" from the drug business so that even kids who are not involved with drug selling have and use guns. Clearer understandings of the facts of crime are needed to inform public policies that address the problems rather than the public's fear of crime and the political ambitions of elected policymakers.