As Breitbart News previously reported, private gun sales skyrocketed during 2013 with 21,093,273 background checks. And now the FBI reports that during the first six months of 2014–the first six months that all these new guns were in the hands of Americans–“offenses” in the categories of violent crimes and property crimes decreased.
In other words, More guns correlated with less crime in the first half of 2014.
According to the FBI, “murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape…aggravated assault, and robbery” all showed decreases when the first six months of 2014 were juxtaposed with the first six months of 2013. Murder fell by “6 percent,” rape by “10.1 percent,” aggravated assault dropped “1.6 percent,” and robbery fell by “10.3 percent.”
Offenses of property crime–“burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft”–all decreased during the first six months of 2014 as well, when contrasted with the first six months of 2013. Burglary fell “14 percent,” larceny-theft fell “5.6 percent,” and motor vehicle thefts fell “5.7 percent.”
When examined by region, the largest decrease in violent crimes and property crimes took place in the Midwest region of the country. When looked at by counties, the largest decrease of both categories of crime took place in non-metropolitan counties–although it did fall in metropolitan counties as well.
On December 4, 2013, Breitbart News reported on a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report showing a similar drop in crime over a near 20-year period correlating with a surge in private gun ownership during that same period. According to the CRS report, privately owned guns jumped from 192 million firearms in 1994 to 310 million firearms in 2009. At the same time, the “firearm-related murder and non-negligent homicide” rate fell from 6.6 per 100,000 Americans in 1993 to 3.6 per 100,000 in 2000 and, finally, to 3.2 per 100,000 in 2011.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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