Let me begin by stipulating that atrocities like this latest Aurora Colorado movie theater massacre are terrible and we should do everything possible to avoid similar incidents. Also, I’m not opposed to registration and some reasonable limits on gun ownership such as terrorists, ex-cons and the mentally unstable but there should be no restrictions on ownership by average citizens – anywhere in the US. There is a “God-given” right of self protection, especially in one’s own home, and a gun is the only way to exercise that right. One has to look no further than the “FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics” to clearly demonstrate that contrary to liberal rhetoric, it is an “inconvenient truth” that “guns actually do make us safer” and that murder rates are lowest in states with the laxest gun laws.
Why does the main-stream press (and especially the Washington Post) ALWAYS fail to put this issue in context? Would it surprise readers to know that according to the “FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics” the 4.8/100,000 US Murder & Non-negligent Homicide rate for 2010 (the most recent year statistics are compiled) is the lowest since 1964 (4.9). Since 1964, the rate continuously increased reaching a high of 10.2 in 1980 and then slowly began to fall although staying above 8.0 for all but one of the next 15 years. In the 1990s the rate again began to spike reaching 9.8 in 1991 and staying in the 9’s throughout most of the decade but slowly began to fall in 1996. In the 2000 decade the rate continually fell staying in the 5’s in the entire decade and finally fell to 4.8 in 2010!
Bottom line, the Murder rate is less than half of what it was in 1980 and we are the safest we’ve been in over 45 years. I would mention that the rate for all violent crimes has been on similar decline.
Like I already mentioned, areas having the laxest gun laws have the lowest murder/homicide rates. For a real eye-opener about the DC area, read my posting below on the subject: homicides-in-district-of-columbia.
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