Half Off

“An armed society is a polite society” — P. J. O’Rourke.

Firearm deaths are off by just shy of half in the past twenty years, even as the number of guns in civilian hands reaches record raw numbers and post-war percentages throughout America.

And that isn’t even the most spectacular good news.  Non-fatal firearm crime is off by right around 75% since 1993:

The bad news?  :

The media – doing the left’s bidding – has convinced people of the exact opposite. A staggering percent of the population – especially women – believe crime has risen lately. 

Caveats:  the crime rate likely dropped as much for demographic reasons as much as anything. 

Counter-caveats: 

  1. There are twice as many gunsper capitain the United States as in 1968.  That’s per capita; in 1968, there was a gun for every two Americans; today, it’s rougly 1:1.  If Michael Bloomberg and Moms Want Action were to be believed (and they are not), the crime rate should have boomed.
  2. The study notes that there are many other factors involved, including regional demographics.  Which is behind the left’s claim that “the places with the most guns have the most violence!”.  The rural south has a particularly high murder rate (as we discussed in debunking this chanting point for the first time, a few years back), for reasons that predate guns, and for that matter the United States itself. 

Of course, news like this – and the recent report from the CDC that affirmed that civilian guns do deter crime – is precisely why the left is ramping up their disinformation campaign. 

Because while a lie can travel around the world while the truth is putting its boots on in the morning, once that truth is up and at ’em, it does tend to pimp-slap the lies. 

So keep slapping.

10 thoughts on “Half Off

  1. Changing demographics: Whites own guns but Mexican immigrants don’t. More guns stockpiled by fewer Old White Men means as we die off and our heirs turn in our guns to be melted, society will quietly purge itself of the tools of violence. In a generation – two at the most – peace and harmony will reign. Kumbaya. Too bad I won’t live to see it.

  2. there are 3 types of lies, lies; damned lies; and statistics.

  3. Fox Butterfield of NYT fame would then pen the following headline: “Gun fatalities down despite surge in gun ownership.” Libs are so stupid.

  4. While I sadly concur with Mr. Doakes, I do hold some hope that the immigrant groups more amenable to assimilation – generally the most desirable – will also adopt their new homeland’s best practices. The acquisition of weapons for self-defense is a universal trait. Granted, some may gather sticks and rocks and choose to remain peasants. But the groups that will succeed will utilize the prevailing technology.

    If the desire to acquire weapons is extinguished, then perhaps they are no longer necessary. That will either mean that our society has negated crime and danger, or has negated the inherent will to protect self and group (family, friends, etc.). The loss of such self-reliance would be sadder than the loss or weapons availability. Guns are not hard to make, even from scratch. Changing a societal norm is a long and hard process.

  5. Ok, I don’t have much time right now to do research, but what is the rate if you subtract Chicago, which is an outlier.

  6. Good point about Chicago.

    How about also excluding intra-group gun crimes; gangs, race, etc.? By their nature, they would exclude most of the population as a whole. Even if collateral victims were included, an examination of random street crime, or other crimes not limited to a clearly defined group, would probably be very discouraging to those who want us to fear firearms.

    Unfortunately, any close analysis of crime by specific traits seems beyond the skills of most journalists … if only the government would keep track of stuff like that … wait a minute …

  7. JPA, Chicago is about 500 murders per year, or about 4% of the total. When murders were higher nationwide, they had close to 1000 murders per year, again about 4% of the total. So Chicago’s murder rate is statistically similar to the nation’s. The trick is that the rest of the nation has free availability to guns and shoots the criminals themselves, while Chicago relies in the police and the street gangs (Latin Kings, Gangster Disciples, Board of Aldermen, etc.) to kill criminals off.

  8. Pingback: Top Secret | Shot in the Dark

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