As famous for its commercials as the big game itself, this year the Super Bowl premiered an ad starring New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Tom Menino. The thirty-second spot promoted Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition group of 600 mayors organized to promote urban safety by preventing the flow of illegal weapons into cities across the United States. While the ad may have seemed out of place alongside ads for cars, websites, and beers, the message it promoted was, in many ways, as uncontroversial as the aforementioned products.

In the early 1980s, a 50-year-old radiator manufacturer who'd never made a gun before was given the opportunity to make some for the Austrian army. His name was Gaston Glock, and the gun that bears his name has gained a ubiquitous presence both on-screen and in real-life crimes over the past 25 years. Made mostly of plastic and consisting fewer parts, the glock is lighter and easier to handle than other handguns — making it "amateur-friendly."

Even though the housing bubble burst nearly five years ago, local governments are only now beginning to feel its repercussions with significantly lower tax revenues. Many municipalities across the country have chosen to bridge this gap by cutting services, specifically in police departments. In 2011, there were fewer cops on patrol than there have been in 25 years. This precipitous drop coincided with a 13 percent increase in the number of officers killed in the line of duty.

President Bashar Assad of Syria is facing increasing pressure now that Jordan’s King Abdullah II voiced his desire to see Assad's regime to step down for the good of the country. King Abdullah was the first Arab leader to make such a call but he did so amid increasing violence within the country between anti-government protesters and soldiers still loyal to Assad. Dr. Zaher Sahloul has seen the Assad’s violent methods of tamping down civilian protest first hand. 

On July 23, 2011, Anders Breivik opened fire at a youth camp on the Norwegian island of Utoya, killing 69 people. Breivik’s brutal crime horrified the world. For many Americans, it stirred up memories of Oklahoma City in 1994, Columbine in 1999, and, of course, September 11, 2001. Yet, despite what looks like a proliferation of shooting sprees and terrorist plots in the last few decades, a new book argues that violence has actually declined since ancient times.

Gang violence erupted in cities across the country in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the youth homicide rate skyrocketed along with the crack epidemic. The government attempted to solve the problem by pouring money into strict policing programs, but while the incarceration rate soared, gang members still murdered each other in the streets. The problem seemed unsolvable until a method called Operation Ceasefire took root, an anti-violence strategy that held entire gangs accounted at group forums for any violence that occurred.

Extortion has tripled in Mexico since 2004, and the latest victims are teachers in Acapulco, one of the country's biggest tourist spots. Gang members are plaguing teachers there with threats demanding they give over half their pay by October 1. Hundreds of schools have closed because of the threats, but thousands of teachers are not sitting quietly, and instead are taking to the streets in protest.

"When we see children as young as 13 looting and laughing, it is clear there are things wrong with our society," said a disgusted Prime Minister David Cameron outside 10 Downing Street this morning. London was relatively quiet last night as an additional 10,000 police officers were deployed around the city after three nights of violence, looting, and arson. However, violence spread to other major cities including Manchester and Birmingham.

Thousands of Mexicans have gathered for a 900-mile march to protest against the drug cartels and the violence that has gripped the country. Their caravan started last weekend in Cuernavaca, a resort and industrial city south of Mexico City. Mexican poet Javier Sicilia—whose son was killed by members of the Mexican drug cartel two months ago—is leading the march. It will conclude when the marchers cross the border from Ciadad-Juarez into El Paso, Texas.

A community grows more and more restless everyday in Miami over the concern that black men may have recently become the target of violence by local police officers. Seven African American male suspects have been fatally shot by Miami police in the past eight months. Adding to the tension there, all of the officers who pulled the trigger in those shootings were Hispanic.

A spate of violence has struck Iraq with roadside bombs killing at least 49 people in Karbala during an annual Shiite pilgrimage. The latest attack is the second in two days, wounding as many as 150 people. The bombs exploded near two police checkpoints near Karbala. These attacks come during one of the most peaceful times in the country.

UN officials announced this week that cholera is now projected to spread across Haiti more than twice as fast as originally estimated, with more than 425,000 cases expected in the first six months since it appeared. The disease had officially infected 66,593 people and killed 1,523 as of Monday, according to the country's Ministry of Health.

Militants believed to be associated with the Islamic State of Iraq, a fundamentalist group associated with Al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, attacked the Iraqi stock exchange yesterday then fled to a nearby church where they took nearly 100 hostages in what would become one of the worst bloodbaths in recent history. At least 52 hostages and Iraqi policemen were killed, many of whom died when a militant blew himself up. Five militants were also slain, and fifty people were wounded.

Perhaps no one has seen the damage wrought upon Afghanistan's infrastructure more than the country's bus drivers, who can often spend hours on the roads traveling just small distances. Our partners at the BBC spoke with several bus drivers and passengers in Afghanistan about how violent and dangerous buses have become since the American invasion of Afghanistan began. On roads in Afghanistan, you're more likely to be caught in the middle of crossfire than running a red light.

By this point, everyone's seen the headlines. It seems like a huge number of football players are getting seriously injured this season. People are asking whether the game has become more violent than ever.

In the latest chapter in a long history of violence in Chechnya, militants broke into the Chechen Parliament in Grozny this morning gunning down at least six people and wounding more than a dozen others. Two of the attackers were reported to be suicide bombers. This attack, like others, is thought to be a challenge to the authority of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's leader. Michael Schwirtz, Moscow correspondent for The New York Times, has been following the story and joins the program with the latest.

The AK-47 has long been synonymous with armed combat at both large and small scale, and for good reason. The gun has remained the most widely-deployed assault rifle in the world for decades. Compact, efficient and reliable in the field, the gun releases fifteen rounds from its barrel in a single second – allowing users to annihilate their enemies with the single touch of a trigger. 

Of course, this also means that millions have died at the hands of those who operate AK-47s. The United Nations estimates that four million people died by small arms in the 1990s alone, ninety percent of them civilians.

Thursday morning marks the 200^th anniversary of the start of The Mexican War for Independence, the conflict that ultimately led to the end of Spanish colonial rule over Mexico. Unfortunately, even as last-minute preparations for a massive commemorative celebration in the capital wrap up, persistent drug-related violence continues to temper optimism over Mexico’s stability.  

For women in Afghanistan, day-to-day life continues to be a struggle. It has been nearly a decade since the fall of the Taliban, yet every step forward for Afghan women seems to come with new setbacks.

Though girls now have the right to an education, getting one can be perilous. Reports over the years of schools being burnt down, teachers being beaten and beheaded, and acid being thrown at girls' faces as they walk to school can obscure signs of progress being made for women, yet they are there.

Oscar Grant was an unarmed black man traveling on the BART train in Oakland, California, on New Years Day in 2009, who was shot and killed by former transit officer Johannes Mehserle. The shooting, caught on a cell phone camera, went viral immediately and caused rioting in the city of Oakland. Last night, jurors in Los Angeles found Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter — a sentence that carries jail time of two to four years. Grant's family, who had been hoping for a murder conviction, was upset with the verdict.