Gun Crisis? What Gun Crisis?

 

 

 

 

 

By  Charles C. W. Cooke

Have a play with this interactive chart from Pew, which shows that “National rates of gun homicide, non-fatal gun crime and all non-fatal violent crimes have fallen since the mid-1990s.” Pretty much every single combination of variables — murder, violence, sex, race – yields a decline.

But whatever you do, do not point out that most states have heavily liberalized their firearms laws since the mid-1990s.

It’s not just Pew. This Department of Justice report makes embarrassing reading for those who spend their time trying to make it appear as if America is in the middle of a gun-crime wave. The headlines:

Firearm-related homicides declined 39%, from 18,253 in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011. 

Nonfatal firearm crimes declined 69%, from 1.5 million victimizations in 1993 to 467,300 victimizations in 2011. 

For both fatal and nonfatal firearm victimizations, the majority of the decline occurred during the 10-year period from 1993 to 2002.

Visually, the decline is particularly striking:

 

 

 

Control by race, you’ll find the same thing:

Control by region, you’ll find the same thing:

And those screaming “. . .but Sandy Hook!” will no doubt be pleased to know that school shootings, too, are down 33 percent since 1993.