Over the last several years, the mainstream media and the left have been telling the American people that there is a rise in gun-related violence across the country. These gun-grabbing leftists in their zeal to overturn the second amendment are doing everything in their power to sway the public into believing that there is an epidemic in gun violence. However, that could not be further from the truth and the latest report from Cato Institute shows just that.
“The homicide rate from firearms has fallen in the United States and in North America as a whole,” reported the Cato Institute, a non-partisan political think tank with a conservative bent.
Since the 1990’s there has been a steady decrease in homicide rates with firearms and that number continues to drop.
The homicide rate from firearms has fallen in the United States and in North America as a whole. The U.S. rate was 5.56 in 1990, and had decreased to 3.97 by 2016. https://t.co/hQL3Pdhg7p #2A #guns pic.twitter.com/2Yoxp4xz9Q
— Cato Institute (@CatoInstitute) June 21, 2018
Here is more from Western Journal:
“The U.S. [firearm homicide] rate was 5.56 in 1990, and had decreased to 3.97 by 2016,” Cato noted.
That’s nearly a 30 percent decrease in the gun murder rate since the go-go 1990s, a statistic that includes mass shootings, which often dominate the headlines.
Those major shootings certainly get attention, but they’re statistical anomalies. The overall murder rate is going down, not up.
One look at a chart published by Human Progress puts the dramatic drop in murders into perspective.
Much to the chagrin of anti-Second Amendment liberals, two changes occurred right in the middle of that dramatic decline in gun homicides: “Assault rifles” became popular, and concealed carry became commonplace.
After being largely illegal during the Clinton era, so-called “assault weapons,” of course just semi-automatic sport rifles, once again became legal. The ban on those firearms expired in 2004, and gun owners rushed to their local stores to purchase the rifles.
One look at the gun homicide chart tells the story. Firearm murders continued to decline steadily after 2004, when AR-15s became legal and popular with civilians.
There was no spike in gun murders. In fact the opposite happened: America became safer.