OFF THE WIRE
by Dan Cannon
The FBI’s latest Uniformed Crime Report has been released. The report covers the first half of 2013.
Some might be surprised to learn that crime fell fairly substantially across the board. According to the report, violent crime is down 5.4% and murder rate is down a significant 6.9%. Both of these are in comparison to the same time period in 2012.
This may be a surprise to some because during 2013, particularly the first half of 2013, gun stores could not keep any firearms on the shelves. Many vendors were sold out of popular models for months on end during 2013.
According to the report,
Preliminary figures indicate that, as a whole, law enforcement agencies throughout the nation reported a decrease of 5.4 percent in the number of violent crimes brought to their attention for the first 6 months of 2013 when compared with figures reported for the same time in 2012. The violent crime category includes murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. The number of property crimes in the United States from January to June of 2013 decreased 5.4 percent when compared with data for the same time period in 2012. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Arson is also a property crime, but data for arson are not included in property crime totals. Figures for 2013 indicate that arson decreased 15.6 percent when compared to 2012 figures from the same time period.I’m not a researcher or a statistician, so I’m not going to make the link and say that more guns in the hands of law abiding citizens is the cause for the reduction in crime. However, I think we can pretty safely refute the claim that anti-gunners make when they blame violent crime on the ownership of guns.
The 2013 numbers aren’t an anomaly either. Violent crime and in particular murder rates have been falling, on average, for the last 30 years.
Property crime also dropped over 5%. The decreases in crime were most noticeable in smaller towns, with larger cities seeing either a small reduction or a very slight increase in crime.
I think that is probably the most telling stat right there. The main problem with violent crime is not guns, it had to do with socio-economic and geographical factors.
I’m sure the anti-gun crowd will find some way to spin this report in their favor however.