WaPo: Report: Sharp drop in gun violence, but most killings still involve firearms
So. We have a sharp drop in gun violence!
Firearms-related homicides declined 39 percent between 1993 and 2011, the report said, while nonfatal firearms crimes fell 69 percent during that period.
Sweet!
But the WaPo wants to emphasize that Evil! Gunz! are still being used at the same proportional rate to commit murder as they have been for twenty years.
Yet the document also made clear that when people are killed, it is still most likely to be with a gun. In 2011, as in the past two decades, about 70 percent of all homicides were committed with a firearm, and the majority of those firearms were handguns.
This is not news. Why would this be news? When existing gun laws aren’t enforced and folks who wouldn’t normally be able to obtain a gun through the legal process can buy one on the street pretty much with impunity (and I am NOT referring to the so-called non-existent “gun show loophole”, either), I’m thinking that when murder is committed, the go-to weapon of choice is likely to be a gun.
But if firearms-related homicides are down 39 percent, even if they’re still 70 percent of all homicides, THEY’RE STILL DOWN 39 PERCENT. That seems huge to me. (By the way, the simple use of mathematics suggests that this means all homicides are down 39 percent as well…even with firearms ownership at an all-time record high, thanks to that shiznitz gun salesman Barack H. Obama.)
So isn’t that good?
I guess the WaPo doesn’t think so.