Emily Alpert
The Los Angeles Times
5/7/2013
Gun crime has plunged in the United States since its peak in the middle of the 1990s, including gun killings, assaults, robberies and other crimes, two new studies of government data show.
Yet few Americans are aware of the dramatic drop, and more than half believe gun crime has risen, according to a newly released survey by the Pew Research Center.
In less than two decades, the gun murder rate has been nearly cut in half. Other gun crimes fell even more sharply, paralleling a broader drop in violent crimes committed with or without guns. Violent crime dropped steeply during the 1990s and has fallen less dramatically since the turn of the millennium…
…Despite the remarkable drop in gun crime, only 12% of Americans surveyed said gun crime had declined compared with two decades ago, according to Pew, which surveyed more than 900 adults this spring. Twenty-six percent said it had stayed the same, and 56% thought it had increased.
It’s unclear whether media coverage is driving the misconception that such violence is up…
Read the entire article at The Los Angeles Times.
Related: Conn. Background Checks for Firearms Up 6,000 Percent
Background checks for firearms have spiked more than 6,000 percent in the state of Connecticut in the wake of the Newtown shooting and the state’s sweeping gun control package.
A background check now must precede any gun purchase in the state, including private sales, according to the state’s new laws. State police have become overwhelmed with requests,the Connecticut Post reports…
Update: U.S. agencies join war against gun owners
…Misusing governmental power in this way might not upset you if you’re not a gun owner or collector, but it should. It is indicative of the way in which the Obama administration is redefining the jurisdiction and powers of various agencies in its war on gun owners. That war is likely to continue even if Congress refuses to pass much of the anti-gun legislation President Obama says he wants.
