A recent article in Latino Fox News decries the “serious” crime situation in the island:

Puerto Rico . . . suffers from an astronomic violent crime rate; the U.S. territory registered 13 murders in the first five days of 2014 – four of them occurring during a single night.

Thirteen murders in five days constitute an verage 2.6 murders per day. However, this figure is not as ominous when compared with cities in the U.S. such as Detroit:

Six people have been killed and nine shot during a 24-hour period in [Detroit]. This round of violence began early Thursday morning and extended into Friday.

Six murdered persons in one night is double an average of 2.6 murders in one day. This Puerto Rican figure probably pertains to the San Juan area (Fox Latino doesn’t specify), an urban enclave with high poverty and substantial drug traffic, not unlike in Detroit, which foment violence.

What the Fox article fails to mention is that in Puerto Rico there have not been any incidents when a deranged (and usually white male) individual invaded a school and killed innocent children, as has periodically been the case in the mainland United States.

There is more to death by firearm than simple numbers: the wanton nature of the crime — and who the perpetrators are — must also be taken into consideration.