You may have heard about a recent Pew survey poll that showed only 12% of Americans believe that gun crime has been on the decline in the last few years. Naturally, this misconception conflicts with the truth of the matter — that firearms related deaths have been declining every year since 1993. Even the BBC begrudgingly admitted to the facts . . .
The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics said firearms-related homicides had dropped to 11,101 in 2011 from 18,253 – a reduction of 39%.
Meanwhile, the Pew Research Center found gun homicides fell to 3.6 per 100,000 people in 2010 from 7 in 1993.
The figures were released three weeks after US senators rejected proposals to extend background checks on gun sales.
President Barack Obama has campaigned for tighter firearms laws after 26 people died in a school shooting in Connecticut in December.
[…]
Despite the drop, some 56% of Americans believe gun crime is higher than two decades ago and only 12% think it is lower, according to the Pew Reseach Center.
A quick aside about the Beeb. We (Robert, Dan and myself) were seated across the table from the BBC’s correspondent in the media center at the NRA Annual Meeting this past weekend. He tried to seem indifferent about guns and gun control, but instantly challenged any figure we brought up that portrayed guns in a positive light. He seemed unable to accept the possibility that guns aren’t the scourge that the network regularly makes them out to be. Which might explain their lack of eloquence when it comes to a story about how gun crime in the United States isn’t actually as bad as the public is lead to believe.
Yes, 924 adults (the size of the Pew study group) is a fairly small sample size, but that doesn’t mean the result is completely off the mark.
Assuming that the survey is valid, what are the odds that these numbers are the real reason behind the support for increased gun control regulations? Despite facts and logic being on the side of gun rights advocates, could the “feeling” that gun crime is worse than it is be fueling the emotion fueled decision-making process of low information voters? Perhaps, then, the best route to preserving the Second Amendment is educating the public about the truth of the gun crime numbers.
Then again, who has the time to watch a commercial about crime stats and logical arguments when you could be watching Kim Kardashian latest OB/Gyn visit on cable?
“So my question to you is this: are you seeing the same in your neck of the woods?”
Seeing ammunition on the shelves here in Central Illinois is about as rare as seeing http://www.nataliegal.com/ in the flesh in these parts.
Someone at the inaugural Guns Save Life meeting in Peoria, IL said that the Cabela’s there had .22s in stock. It was damn near a stampede following the meeting.
We got there and it was a one-box limit.
We dutifully all (about a dozen or so made the short trip) stood in line for our box of 375 cartridges.
Hey, it’s enough for someone to shoot an Appleseed.
But no, ammo is neither available or affordably priced in these parts.
John
I only take the information I need from Yeager. Other than that, what he says and does is not my concern.
Y’all better get it through your heads, Gottlieb is playing for the other team now, because he’s had a handwriting-on-the-wall moment. He THINKS he sees this thing like the NRA has on many occasions, as a time when the supposed inevitability of gun control means that if you get to the table on time, you can divert and water things down a little so you don’t lose the whole enchilada. But what he’ll wind up doing is giving the gun control morons more fodder, and media coverage, and we’ll still lose, but the sheep will nod and believe that gun owners are “reasonable”. Chamberlain thought he could placate Hitler too. And these collectivist bastards could teach Hitler some things.
If we’re being frank, the stuff he says in public is some of the exact same stuff at least some of you have thought in your head.
If anything, you are more discretionary about what you admit out loud.
I’m not judging you for it, but I will commend you about knowing when to keep your mouth shut. It just seems Yeager has an inability to do that.
From the BBC study article:
“However, the justice department study also suggested that the percentage of US homicides committed with a firearm had held steady at around 70% between 1993-2011.”
Wow that is working pretty hard to find something negative to report. I don’t see why anyone would be surprised by this. Homicides drop but the percentage committed with a firearm stays the same. Makes sense to me.
In Tulsa, it seems to be getting a little better. Went to Academy at lunch yesterday and no handgun calibers, nor .22lr. Only some .308 and some 7.62 x 39.
But I went by my LGS and they had a decent selection. Still kinda high, but boxes of 9MM for $20 or so. They also had .223, yet it was $650/1000rds.
Still very high, but at least they have some. Hopefully, the next step is prices slowly getting back to a reasonable range.
No ammo to be found in my neck of the woods (Cocoa, FL) unless it’s waaaay overpriced.
That “gun” crime has been declining is the important part – that people think it has actually gotten worse is a perfectly prosaic psychological phenomenon. People tend to imagine everything as having been better in the past, from the moral character of teenagers to the quality of popular music.
I live in central Tennessee. No ammo as of this past weekend. Since you seem to have extra, send some to Tennessee…
Liberal emotion will always trump the hard facts. Somehow, someway this will be refuted, rationalized and or dismissed.
Great article! Post, partisan post, whatever … Great Stuff!
Does this mean they will be going after sites like CNC guns now?
I have the older style Hissatsu folder and think it is a great knife! Truly, this knife has one purpose, slashing and stabbing people very efficiently. I have no doubt that the blade of my knife would be able to cut through layers of clothing and puncture just as easily.
I’m sure people have anticipated that the files would be removed and copied them. Defense distributed can obviously only remove the files it has control over. Also, the legal reasoning seems shakey, as I’m sure the intent was to regulate international transfer of actual arms, not electronic blueprints. .
My Grandfather who lived through both WW1 and WW2 told me if you are going to tell a lie, tell a big one and if you tell it often enough, people just might believe it. His Missouri small dirt farm wisdom is still valid.
And so….we have irrefutable proof that anti-civil rights people on the left of the political spectrum (tjat means all of them) operate entirely, exclusively, irredeemably, completely and permanently on “feelings”. How much more time are you gonna spend trying to reason with such people, using facts, figures, logic? Time to move on. If we cannot find an emotional means of defeating the anti-civil rights (enumerated rights, at that) movement, we are doomed to a fighting retreat, where none of our best weapons (political/philosophical/rhetorical can save us.
Even the courts of the nation do not operate in logic and fact.
That’s because Minitrue has been working overtime to overexpose and sensationalize every firearm-involved incident, in order to make people believe the opposite of what is true.
Because that’s what Minitrue does.