“An elite South African police unit shot dead seven men who tried to rob a cash depot in western Johannesburg on Saturday evening,” reuters reports. “Nine others were injured and under police guard in hospital.” Local news, really. So why did this shooting [not shown above] make the NBC News blog? Perhaps it has something to do with the closing paragraphs. “Crime is a chronic problem for South Africa. It has one of the highest murder rates in the world outside a war zone. About 40 percent of the adult population is jobless – a percentage expected to rise substantially in the coming years – and this is seen driving crime and widening economic inequality.” A familiar media meme: high unemployment = high crime > tax and spend! Except that America’s violent crime rate has continued its multi-decade drop during our festering recession—until this year when it soared 17 percent. So what causes violent/gun crime, then?