Thread: Gun crime continues to decrease, despite increase gun sales

Gun crime continues to decrease, despite increase in gun sales

Published: 3:41 PM 09/28/2011 | Updated: 2:43 AM 09/29/2011
By C.J. Ciaramella

The FBI recently released its Crime in The United States statistics for 2010. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/cr ... -u.s.-2010

Overall, murders in the U.S. have decreased steadily since 2006, dropping from 15,087 to 12,996. Firearms murders — which made up 67 percent of all murders in the U.S. in 2010 — have followed this trend, decreasing by 14 percent.

At the same time that firearms murders were dropping, gun sales were surging. In 2009, FBI background checks for guns increased by 30 percent over the previous year, while firearms sales in large retail outlets increased by almost 40 percent. The number of applications for concealed carry permits jumped across the country as well.

“There was a huge spike,â€

Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the people's liberty teeth keystone... the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable... more than 99% of them by their silence indicate that they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference. When firearms go, all goes, we need them every hour." George Washinton , Address to First session of Congress, 1789