Crime - Homicide Rates Decrease

Although the news and media paint a picture of increasing violence and danger in the United States and stress the fact that getting rid of assault weapons will decrease homicide rate it’s just not true.  Unfortunately our society thrives on hype and sensationalism so we’re quick to believe the skewed information and statistics that the media presents us with.  The official United States government crime figures show that homicide rates and violent crime statistics have actually gone down. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) homicide data goes back as far as 1976. That year there were 18,780 homicides but the population then was much smaller which affects the rate per 100,000. Homicides were at their highest in 1991 with 24,700 homicides, the trend since then has seen crime go down. FBI Uniform Crime Reports show homicides dropped to 12,664 in 2011, the last year available. The murder rate has dropped from 9.3 per 100,000 in 1992 to 4.7 per 100,000 in 2011. The violent crime rate is now 50.9% of what it was 20 years ago and the homicide rate has declined by 48.7% in that same time period. Contrary to popular beliefs these facts show a trend in declining violence in America that has been occurring for more than 20 years. In the middle of that 20-year period we had an assault weapons and once the ban was lifted, violent crime and homicide still declined. So despite the fact that we are being programmed to believe that a weapons ban will be the key to preventing future mass murders and other crime statistics and hard facts prove otherwise.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/23170/gun-control-facts-homicides-and-violent-crime-have-dropped-50-over-the-last-20-years

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