It's true that violent crime is down under President Obama, but probably not for the
reasons you think.
Call it the Obama effect. The murder rate dropped 7.4 percent nationwide last year, and the administration can enjoy some of the credit - but not for the reason you might think. Mr. Obama's election sparked a surge in gun sales, and, consequently, crime rates have plummeted.
In November 2008, a total of 450,000 more people purchased firearms than had bought them in November 2007. This is a more than 10-fold increase, compared with the change in sales from November 2007 over November 2006, which was only about 35,000. The average year-to-year increase in monthly sales in the past decade averaged just 21,000.
The guys in Washington DC and Chicago should take note. Crime is down in places where the government isn't afraid of its citizens.
The connection between firearm ownership and safer streets is simple and direct. Criminals realize that they face far greater risks when members of the public have the tools they need to defend themselves.
It's also true that when criminals know that they have a fair chance of stumbling upon an armed victim, their chances of survival go down. Better to target those who don't have guns.
4 comments:
I notice from an earlier post that Louisiana has very "gun-friendly" laws (and a much higher than average rate of gun ownership per household), yet it leads the nation in "gun death rate" (deaths per 100k residents). What gives?
And if we're silly enough to assert direct causation instead of mere correlation to the more guns, less crimes relationship, then how do we explain the massive nationwide drop in violent crime (much of it in NYC) during the Clinton administration, when gun laws were tightened?
Simple, oyster. Your second link is from the Violence Policy Center, who has absolutely zero credibility.
I'm not nearly sophisticated enough to know the difference between a direct causation and a mere correlation, but I am sophisticated enough to know the difference between the violent crime rates and the whatever VPC is calling "gun deaths". I suspect that they're all misadventures, including those that aren't criminal.
How do we explain the drop in violent crime under the Clinton Administration? Same way. Lots of guns were bought during the Clinton years, especially leading up the well-named Clinton Gun Ban.
Should we consider electing more gun-control Dems, then, in order to improve safety by scaring up more gun sales? ;-D
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