In the wake of the Orlando nightclub massacre, politicians have attempted to use the tragedy as means of garnering public support for increased gun control measures. Four pieces of knee-jerk gun control legislation were defeated in Congress yesterday, but the debate surrounding gun rights continues unabated.
The new narrative is that “mass shootings,” defined by the FBI as 3 or more people killed in one incident, are at epidemic levels and thus require society to increase restrictions on gun ownership as a means of saving lives and lowering the U.S. homicide rate.
However, this narrative flies in the face of reality as the homicide rate in the U.S. is actually at a 51-year low, according to FBI data. The homicide rate in the U.S. for 2014, the most recent year available, was 4.5 per 100,000. The 2014 total is part of a long downward trend and is the lowest homicide rate recorded since 1963 when the rate was 4.6 per 100,000. The last time the homicide rate in the U.S. was lower than it is now was in 1957 when the total homicide rate was 4.0 per 100,000.
Surprisingly, most Americans are completely unaware of this information, as the media and politicians in the U.S. consistently work to create a circus-like atmosphere surrounding firearms as a means of controlling the fear-based narrative of a public need for additional gun restrictions.
Contrary to what the public has been led to believe, as the homicide rate in the U.S. has fallen to a 51-year low, gun ownership has increased drastically.
According to a report by the Mises Institute:
Over a recent 20 year period, the number of new guns in the US that were either manufactured in the US or imported into the US increased 141 percent from 6.6 million new guns in 1994 to 16 million in 2013. That means a gross total of 132 million new guns were added into the US population over that time period.
However one wants to rationalize this information there is one overarching theme – increased access to firearms has not led to a more violent society in the U.S. – and according to the FBI’s data, has actually correlated with a markedly less violent society as indicated by the lowest homicide rate in the past 50 years.
Since the data is so convincingly clear, gun control advocates have now resorted to defining “mass shootings” as a special type of murder, and using the emotion of tragedies like Orlando, as an excuse for further regulate firearms in hopes that people’s knee-jerk reactions will overcome data and logic.
“Yes, homicide rates have been going down,” they admit, “but mass shootings are now an epidemic!”
This argument fails to acknowledge how absurd it is to attempt to imply that homicides are going up because of mass shootings when there are 49 percent fewer homicides compared to twenty years ago.
This leads us to an interesting question: If the actual goal is to decrease homicides in the U.S., then why would we attempt to abolish the conditions that have strongly correlated with decreasing homicide rates (increased gun ownership) in an attempt to rid a specific variety of homicide that accounts for a very small percentage of the overall homicides in the U.S.?
Regardless of Obama’s claims that “no one wants to take your guns,” there is most certainly an elite-driven agenda that is attempting to slowly regulate guns out of American public society. The push to further regulate guns isn’t simply about decreasing homicides, as the data clearly reveals an ongoing trend of decreasing homicide rates – which begs the question: If the motive isn’t to decrease homicides, then what is the actual intent of pushing for increased gun control measures?
When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. – Thomas Jefferson
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Jay Syrmopoulos writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared.
Crime is down due to cameras everywhere not to increased gun ownership but elite manufacturers profits are up as warfare increases globally which is mass killing and increased weapon usage. Journalism needs to upgrade its viewpoint and apply logic to include the larger picture. Also “crime is down” does not include unreported crime which at best can only be estimated.
Are you being intentionally obtuse? You do realize that we are talking about the actual rate of GUN MURDERS being added up, then compared to other years. So, this is NOT about cameras or anything else like that…it’s about GUN MURDER being at a 51 year low, despite GUN OWNERSHIP increasing by 141% over the same time. We can argue WHY gun murder is down all day, but the point of the article is, the HYPE about gun control is just that, HYPE, we are at a 51 year LOW for gun murder, so everyone calling for banning guns are idiots. They aren’t even saying with any certainty that it’s a cause and effect. Once again, this is about GUN MURDERS, how many there have been in the past, compared to today. SIMPLE!
Just says homicides, not gun deaths so……..
You would have a better statistical metric than “per capita”? The Gross Domestic Product of Nigeria is 3 times that of Kuwait.
Does that tell you anything about the wealth of either country? (HINT) – The GDP per capita in Nigeria is about 3k USD while Kuwait’s GDP per capita is about 52k USD.
People don’t only get killed with guns was my point so it doesn’t tell you anything.
This is per 100000 and the population is 1.7 times larger so there was actually 70% more people killed in 2014 than 1963 which makes this very misleading. I would avoid articles that contain the word myth in the title when talking about real life things as apposed to spiritual beliefs.
How many different people are you pretending to be?
An armed society is a polite society.
Never submit.
Both of them are cheap but neither affordable for any of us.
Lies, damned lies and statistics.
“Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.”
—Mark Twain
It clearly says homicides, not gun deaths. If you go look at the FBI data you will see all of the categories. Either way, the rate is still lower, per 100,000 people but the population is significantly higher than 51 years ago also. BTW I have NEVER seen a camera stop a crime, just saying. That actually made my brain hurt…
Hot off the press ! Confirmed cops told to stand down and not pursue shooter in Orlando for almost thirty minutes. Wonder why a body count like that it is ? Who benefited from this? Did you see the disorderly Democlowns on the house floor ? Boobus Americanus we are being led down garden path. No censure for PC Democlowns huh? I guess law is just for the law abiding?