MO Murder Rate Growth Declined 15% after Scrapping Universal Background Checks

In 2007, Missouri rescinded the state’s “universal background check” requirement and witnessed a murder rate that grew fifteen percent slower than it had in the previous five years. 

In the five years prior to rescinding the law, Missouri’s murder rate had risen by 32 percent.

Simply put, the Show Me State’s murder rate grew faster when its universal background check law–which included a mandate for background checks at gun shows–was in place. 

But as Fox News reports, media outlets like CBS, MSNBC, PBS, The Washington Post, and the BBC are “breathless” over a pending report that seizes on the fact that the murder rate still grew once the universal background checks were rescinded. To do this, they ignore that the growth was 15 percent slower than before. 

Besides ignoring the decrease in the growth of the murder rate, these media outlets also turn a blind eye to the fact that “Missouri’s violent crime rate fell 7 percent faster than the violent crime rate for the rest of the United States from 2006 to 2012.”

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins