WASHINGTON DC HOMICIDE RATE SOARS IN COMPARISON WITH VIRGINIA SUBURBS

MARYLAND RATE SHOWS SMALLER INCREASES AS BOTH DC AND MARYLAND ENACT MORE ONEROUS GUN LAWS

Like clockwork each New Years the Washington Post publishes an article exposing the homicide stats for the District of Columbia, our Nation’s Capital, and the surrounding suburbs so I can confirm how luck I am to live in Virginia where I have the freedom to own a gun for self-protection. Also, like clockwork, the WaPo fails to do any analysis of the numbers because from the stats it is obvious that homicidal maniacs would much rather commit their crimes in jurisdictions like DC and Maryland that not only don’t have the death penalty but where they have little chance of being confronted by a law abiding citizen who just might have a gun of their own than in Virginia with virtually no restrictions on guns and the only questions for convicted murders is do you prefer the needle or the chair and if the chair, AC or DC?

This year’s WaPo article: Killings in Montgomery, Prince George’s rose in 2015 ( Link at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/killings-in-montgomery-prince-georges-rose-in-2015/2016/01/01/fe71a58c-af0d-11e5-b820-eea4d64be2a1_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_mocohomicides-1030am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory ) showed that the results of DC and Maryland “strengthening” their gun control laws in 2015 was they have become more dangerous places to live compared to the Virginia suburbs. In 2014 a DC resident, where firearms are virtually impossible to own, was only 16.32 times more likely to be a homicide victim then one of us Gun Tottin Virginians living in the adjacent DC suburbs of Alexandria City and, Arlington & Fairfax Counties where gun ownership is almost unrestricted but in 2015 they are now 22.18 times more likely to be killed. Even a Marylander living in the adjacent DC suburbs of Prince Georges and Montgomery Counties in 2014, with increasingly strict gun laws under former Gov O’Malley, was only 4.1 times less likely to be a homicide victim than a DC resident and 4 times more likely to be a homicide victim than one of us Virginia Gun Totters but in 2015 that changed for the worse! Although in 2015 a Marylander was only slightly less likely to be killed than a DC resident at 4.13 times, they are now 5.15 times more likely to be a homicide victim than one of us Virginians.

Like in past years, the WaPo curiously makes no attempt to explain the disparity in rates among the various jurisdictions but even a cursory analysis of the stats might reveal a motive for why the Liberal WaPo does no analysis -- could it be because it would clearly demonstrate the dramatically inverse relationship between homicide rates and restrictions on gun ownership.

For you doubters who might want to run the figures for themselves, here is the detailed math for the 2015 numbers using the latest population estimates from Census Bureau and the Stats in the article:

DC population = 646,449
2015 Homicides = 162
2015 Homicide Rate = 25.06 / 100,000 people.

Maryland DC-suburbs of Montgomery & Prince George’s Counties
Population = 1,906,758 (Montgomery = 1,016,677; PG = 890,081)
2015 Homicides = 111
2015 Homicide Rate = 5.82 / 100,000.

Virginia suburbs of Alexandria City, and Arlington & Fairfax Counties
Population = 1,504,722 (Alexandria = 148,892, Arlington = 224,906, Fairfax = 1,130,924)
2015 Homicides = 17 homicides
2015 Homicide Rate = 1.13 / 100,000

Comparison of DC to VA suburbs = 25.06/1.13 = A DC resident is 22.18 times more likely to be a victim than a Virginian

Comparison of DC to MD suburbs = 25.06/5.82 = A DC Resident is 4.31 times more likely to be a victim than a Marylander
 
Comparison of MD suburbs to VA suburbs = 5.82/1.13 = A Marylander is 5.15 times more likely to be a victim than a Virginian

Now I’m not opposed to registration and some reasonable limits on 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. If you don’t believe me, just ask any Bostonian who was directed to “shelter in place” during the Marathon Bomber manhunt or upstate New York resident when Police were hunting the murders who escaped from their Clinton “maximum security prison” how they feel about owning a gun now! One has to go no further than right here in our own DC-area backyard to clearly demonstrate that contrary to liberal rhetoric, it is an “inconvenient truth” that guns actually do make us safer. Case in point, Virginia has by far the laxest gun laws and the least gun violence of any of the surrounding jurisdictions. Could it be criminals are not so anxious to attack law-abiding citizens if they might be "packing heat?"

I would add that for those of you that are sincerely worried about the safety of children in homes with guns, I would suggest that your energies would be far more productive in saving children’s lives if you were to crusade against home swimming pools. In any given year in this country there is one child drowning death for every 11,000 residential swimming pools or 550 children under the age of 10 drown every year in our 6 million pools. Meanwhile there is one child killed by a gun for every one million (plus) guns in this country or with about 300 million guns, approximately 175 children die. This means a child is over 160 times more likely to drown in a pool than be killed by a gun. Hence, banning residential pools is a much more effective way of protecting children than banning fire arms.