Wanna bet few people know this? Yes, yet another example of how Republicans and conservatives are failing in the information war. This is from Katie Gregerson:
It seems like there are multiple mass shootings every week in America. Most recently, two people killed 14 and wounded 21 in an attack on a holiday party in San Bernardino, Calif. The motive of the shooters is as yet undetermined, but it’s looking more and more like it was an act of self-radicalized Islamic terrorism.
However, despite the perceived jump in mass attacks and increased calls for stricter gun control, the fact of the matter is that gun violence — and deaths as a result of gun violence — has been on the decline for two decades now:
In 1993, there were seven homicides by firearm for every 100,000 Americans, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By 2013, that figure had fallen by nearly half, to 3.6 — a total of 11,208 firearm homicides. The number of victims of crimes involving guns that did not result in death (such as robberies) declined even more precipitously, from 725 per 100,000 people in 1993 to 175 in 2013.
Older data suggests that gun violence might have been even more widespread previously. The rate of murder and manslaughter excluding negligence reached an apex in 1980, according to the FBI. That year, there were 10.8 willful killings per 100,000 people. Although not a perfect measure of the overall rate of gun violence, the decline in the rate of murder and manslaughter is suggestive: Two in three homicides these days are committed with guns.
This decline in gun violence is part of an overall decline in violent crime. According to the FBI’s data, the national rate of violent crime has decreased 49 percent since its apex in 1991. Even as a certain type of mass shooting is apparently becoming more frequent, America has become a much less violent place.
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