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The FBI Violent Crime Stats Prove Gun Sales Up, Crime Down in 2014!
By Dave Dolbee published on October 21, 2015 in News
Regardless the lies, half-truths and misleading political speeches, the numbers speak the loudest. And what do the numbers say? Gun sales were up again in 2014 and violent crime went down. In fact, although you wouldn't know it by listening to the Left's stump speeches or the Democratic National Committee's debate, the trend of law-abiding citizens with guns has skyrocketed while the violent crime rate has trended down has been the reality for many years now. 2014's numbers are just the latest example of this phenomenon.
However, mass shootings, the big city violence of Chicago, New York, Detroit or New Orleans is all the mainstream media cares to focus on. How much time will they give this news? The media's motto is, "If it bleeds, it leads!" However, the only thing bleeding from the FBI's latest statistics for 2014 are the mistruths and spin by the gun control crowd.
With the elections around the corner, and many politicians on the stump bashing the Second Amendment every chance they get, we need to get this message out to the masses—loud and proud.
Here's what the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) had to say.
As NSSF President Steve Sanetti explains in this NSSF blog post, violent crime has continued its long-term decline even as a record-breaking number of firearms have been purchased by the law-abiding American population.
GUN SALES UP, CRIME DOWN…
You're really not to blame if you haven't heard that violent crime declined again in 2014. After all, the news media generally do not report on the release of these annual statistics from the country's leading federal crime-fighting agency.
This month, the FBI released the 2014 edition of Crime in the United States, and it revealed that the estimated number of reported violent crimes decreased 0.2 percent when compared with 2013. And the estimated number of property crimes decreased 4.3 percent from 2013 levels.
Homicides with firearms in 2014 were down 3.9 percent on a year-over-year basis. Consistent with previous years of this ongoing work, the vast majority of these murders were committed with handguns, although all categories of gun murders were lower. Rifles of all kinds were involved in just 3 percent of gun murders in 2014, lower than the number of deaths attributable to knives, blunt objects, and even fists or feet.
While the one-year numbers may not look that dramatic, they are nonetheless important because they serve to illustrate the long-term, 20-year downward trend in crime in the United States is continuing.
The NSSF is the trade association for America's firearms industry.
The NSSF's mission: To promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports.
Using NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) data over a ten-year period since 2005, the best proxy we have for firearms sales, we see a 74.1 percent increase in background checks even as the violent crime fell 16.2 percent. The 15-year trend is even more dramatic, showing an 81.8 percent increase in NICS numbers even as violent crime fell 18.2 percent.
Put simply, more firearms in the hands of the mostly law-abiding American population have not yielded an increase in crime.
Not seeing much (or any) mainstream news coverage of the newly released crime stats? Well, we're not surprised and if you read our blog on even a periodic basis, it's no surprise to you either. We've covered this topic before. In fact, the motion infographic that we released more than a year ago, remains accurate in content and direction.
The gun control lobby gets considerable attention for arguing that there is an "epidemic of gun violence" extant in the land. Every death due to the criminal misuse of a firearm is a tragedy. We would never suggest otherwise. But two decades of a steady, dramatic decrease in such crimes is the opposite of an epidemic. It would be nice if the mainstream media would report on these facts.
By Dave Dolbee published on October 21, 2015 in News
Regardless the lies, half-truths and misleading political speeches, the numbers speak the loudest. And what do the numbers say? Gun sales were up again in 2014 and violent crime went down. In fact, although you wouldn't know it by listening to the Left's stump speeches or the Democratic National Committee's debate, the trend of law-abiding citizens with guns has skyrocketed while the violent crime rate has trended down has been the reality for many years now. 2014's numbers are just the latest example of this phenomenon.
However, mass shootings, the big city violence of Chicago, New York, Detroit or New Orleans is all the mainstream media cares to focus on. How much time will they give this news? The media's motto is, "If it bleeds, it leads!" However, the only thing bleeding from the FBI's latest statistics for 2014 are the mistruths and spin by the gun control crowd.
With the elections around the corner, and many politicians on the stump bashing the Second Amendment every chance they get, we need to get this message out to the masses—loud and proud.
Here's what the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) had to say.
As NSSF President Steve Sanetti explains in this NSSF blog post, violent crime has continued its long-term decline even as a record-breaking number of firearms have been purchased by the law-abiding American population.
GUN SALES UP, CRIME DOWN…
You're really not to blame if you haven't heard that violent crime declined again in 2014. After all, the news media generally do not report on the release of these annual statistics from the country's leading federal crime-fighting agency.
This month, the FBI released the 2014 edition of Crime in the United States, and it revealed that the estimated number of reported violent crimes decreased 0.2 percent when compared with 2013. And the estimated number of property crimes decreased 4.3 percent from 2013 levels.
Homicides with firearms in 2014 were down 3.9 percent on a year-over-year basis. Consistent with previous years of this ongoing work, the vast majority of these murders were committed with handguns, although all categories of gun murders were lower. Rifles of all kinds were involved in just 3 percent of gun murders in 2014, lower than the number of deaths attributable to knives, blunt objects, and even fists or feet.
While the one-year numbers may not look that dramatic, they are nonetheless important because they serve to illustrate the long-term, 20-year downward trend in crime in the United States is continuing.
The NSSF is the trade association for America's firearms industry.
The NSSF's mission: To promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports.
Using NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) data over a ten-year period since 2005, the best proxy we have for firearms sales, we see a 74.1 percent increase in background checks even as the violent crime fell 16.2 percent. The 15-year trend is even more dramatic, showing an 81.8 percent increase in NICS numbers even as violent crime fell 18.2 percent.
Put simply, more firearms in the hands of the mostly law-abiding American population have not yielded an increase in crime.
Not seeing much (or any) mainstream news coverage of the newly released crime stats? Well, we're not surprised and if you read our blog on even a periodic basis, it's no surprise to you either. We've covered this topic before. In fact, the motion infographic that we released more than a year ago, remains accurate in content and direction.
The gun control lobby gets considerable attention for arguing that there is an "epidemic of gun violence" extant in the land. Every death due to the criminal misuse of a firearm is a tragedy. We would never suggest otherwise. But two decades of a steady, dramatic decrease in such crimes is the opposite of an epidemic. It would be nice if the mainstream media would report on these facts.
