According to preliminary data released today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in 2005 murders increased 4.8 percent, for an estimated 16,900 victims. According to press reports, the number murdered is the highest since 1998, with the percent increase the largest in 15 years. If weapon trends hold true to past years, more than 70 percent of these murders will be committed with guns, the vast majority being handguns. Overall, the violent crime rate rose for the first time since 2001.
For those on the left and right who want their guns to, in theory, protect themselves from "the gubmint," not to forget timid politicians and their consultants who look to blame gun control for their own political shortcomings, these figures don't mean much. Like the National Rifle Association, any number of dead from gun violence is acceptable as--to use once again the NRA's coarse characterization--the "price of freedom."
And while murder increased at the slowest rate in America's largest cities (0.5 percent for cities over a million, with drops reported by New York and Los Angeles), the largest percentage increase was seen in cities between 50,000 to 99,999 (up 12.4 percent) and 100,000 to 249,999 (up 12.5 percent).
But for those not enamored of their own Mitty-esque versions of Red Dawn, the increase can be summed up in the words of Northeastern University criminal justice professor James Alan Fox: "We see that budgets for policing are being slashed and the federal government has gotten out of that business....Funding for prevention at the federal level and many localities are down and the (National Rifle Association) has renewed strength." Added to this is the swath cut across the middle of the country by the growing popularity of methamphetamine and increasing gang activity.
The well-armed chickens are coming home to roost.
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