“In fact, The Pew Research Center came out with a report in February of this year showing several different downward trends involving violent crime in the United States.”
While discussing firearms statistics and crime trends in the United States in a recent twitter back and forth, I was amazed to find out how little most people know about crime in the United States and how few people can recall actual numbers on these subjects.
You would think if someone is going to discuss or argue their side of the gun violence fallacy or the violent crime epidemic policy that they would research a little bit before making themselves look foolish. Unfortunately, I have found that is not the case.
It is a given fact that in the United States gun purchases and gun ownership have been going up steadily since around 1998 or so when the national background records checks began, and record keeping of purchases started. Only since January of this year have background checks not exceeded those from the previous year.
The fact is that many people buy firearms in a reactionary way, sometimes based on political outcomes. So, can we safely say that firearms ownership and firearms purchases have steadily increased over the years and that there are now record numbers of citizens lawfully owning and carrying guns? See “5 facts about crime in the U.S” and tell me what you think.
Now at the same time let’s look at violent crime in the United States. The trend has been on a steady downward slope since the 1993 record keeping began. In fact, The Pew Research Center came out with a report in February of this year showing several different downward trends involving violent crime in the United States.
In addition, it is a given fact published by the Department of Justice and the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting that the murder rate or homicide rate in the United States has been on a steady decline over the last 20 years as well.
Now there has been no correlation made between rising gun ownership, or rise in the number of firearms owned lawfully by citizens, and the decline of violent crime. Yet, with the decline of homicide rates in the United States, one does have to wonder, is there some correlation between the two, or is one somehow a factor of the other?
I would love to see someone with more education and intelligence than I try to find some type of correlation. Does the fact that more Americans than ever before own and lawfully carry firearms attribute to the decline in violent crime and murder rate in the United States?
One can only hope so and I think it may be, while not the sole cause of the decline, at least partially responsible for it.
