Monday, January 14, 2013

Some Useful Statistics in the Gun Control Debate

From the FBI's Uniform Crimes Reporting Database (click to enlarge):  (H/T Magic Blue Smoke)


1 Populations are U.S. Census Bureau provisional estimates as of July 1 for each year except 2000 and 2010, which are decennial census counts.
2 The murder and nonnegligent homicides that occurred as a result of the events of September 11, 2001, are not included in this table.
3 The crime figures have been adjusted.

Emotionalism is the friend of politicians pushing an agenda.  If you view the entire table, no category of crime is increasing, including murder.  What national crisis needs to be solved with bold new action?  Aren't we solving it already, with slow steady progress?  The murder rate dropped from 9.3 per 100,000 to 4.7 per 100,000 during this period.

2 comments:

  1. Even more interesting is the fact that the US violent crime rate is half that of Canada and 1/4th of the UK, both with more restrictive laws.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here is what our California "Representatives" think of our opinions on gun control:
    http://blog.doodooecon.com/2013/01/i-want-my-buck-and-half-back.html

    Congressman Thompson told a citizen at a forum on "prevention of gun violence" that he could have his "Buck and a half back" when confronted with the fact that he works for us and that we pay his salary.

    Here is California, where guns are not to be carried, we are bucking the trend of lower violent crime. Rape is exploding and murder appears to be following that trend.

    ReplyDelete