The latest FBI crime statistics are out. The usual suspects are poring over the data, looking for justification for their anti-gun agenda. The resulting spin is nothing less than dizzying. For example, the chart above — created by our good friends at The Trace — shows that the criminal use of rifles has declined both generally and as a percentage of the types of firearms used in crimes. Now you and I would look at that and conclude . . .
that the data doesn’t support gun control advocates’ ongoing campaign to ban “assault rifles” (setting aside the irrelevance of any data given Americans’ Second Amendment protections). The Trace has a different take . . .
It’s not surprising that handgun homicides account for most of the elevation in the national murder rates over the past two years. Following a sea change in the legal gun market, as gun companies cater to those who buy weapons to defend themselves from other people, the supply of handguns to the black market has also expanded.
Once again, criminals use handguns because they’re easy to conceal. Full stop. Anything suggesting anything else is either delusional, willfully ignorant or anti-gun rights agenda-driven.
Speaking of “assault rifle” regulation, there’s one in place in California. In fact, the Golden State has more and more unconstitutional gun control laws than any other state. So how’s that working out for them?
FBI: Violent crime up in California and US for 2nd straight year the headline at sfgate.com proclaims, careful to add “and the US” to ameliorate the failure of the state’s law enforcement and gun control regime.
Talk about spin; the news org doesn’t reveal the actual rise (4.1 percent) until the twelfth paragraph. And before that, yup, you guessed it, there’s a shot at President Trump.
But the recent jumps, while prompting concern and a search for causes, do not reflect a picture of spiraling lawlessness suggested by some observers, criminologists said. President Trump earlier this year falsely claimed the U.S. murder rate had surged to its highest level in nearly 50 years.
Violent crime and property crime rates, instead, were uneven across the Bay Area and the country, with some local jurisdictions reporting falling numbers year-to-year, and nearly all of them seeing crime rates that are well off the historical highs of decades ago.
Here’s the only bit where “reporter” Evan Sernoffsky focuses on the surge in violent crime.
In the region’s largest city, San Jose, violent crime went up 13 percent from 2015 to 2016 and homicides rose from 30 to 47. San Jose, though, remains relatively safe among big cities.
Fail. Epic fail. Epic gun control fail. Violent crime is up in every major city with “strict” (i.e. unconstitutional) gun control. Check out this lipstick on a pig headline: FBI: Violent crime up in Seattle and Washington in 2016, but murders specifically down. Or this: How some local law enforcement agencies are making headway in reducing violent crimes.
Violent crime is up. As usual, cities with gangs and gun control are spearheading the rise. Gun rights restoration alone may not solve the problem, but it’s clear that gun control is not the solution. As if you didn’t know.