Amid calls nationwide for stricter gun control laws, Virginia is experiencing a unique trend: the state’s gun-related crime is declining but firearms sales are increasing.
Firearms sales rose 16 percent to a record 490,119 guns purchased from licensed gun dealers in 2012, according to sales estimates obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
During the same period, major crimes committed with firearms dropped 5 percent to 4,378.
“This appears to be additional evidence that more guns don’t necessarily lead to more crime,” said Thomas R. Baker, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs who specializes in research methods and criminology theory.
This is an interesting Caveat:
he cautioned against drawing any conclusions that more guns in the hands of Virginians are causing a corresponding drop in gun crime.
Except there are LOTS of data points in this social experiment, and they ALL point this way.
Of course the gun grabbers chime in!
Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said that the real question is how many guns are sold without a background check.
“In other words, if people who buy those guns and have a background check, and keep those guns and don’t sell them, then you would not expect that those guns would affect the crime rate,” Horwitz told the newspaper. “The important analysis is not the total number of guns sold with a background check, but rather the number of guns sold without a background check.”
See Josh refutes the actual evidence, and substitutes his own fictitious fantasies that he dreamed up.
Which argument is more compelling?
Really, Horwitz? Then why are you pushing for banning scary looking guns and magazines?
Why are you against CCW? To get a shall issue permit you’ve got to pass a background check, how come you’re not all about that?
And gotta love how the media still says this is a “unique” trend. When even the Gun Control mouthpiece has to admit, albeit unwittingly, that it’s not the guns causing the problem.
“The important analysis is not the total number of guns sold with a background check, but rather the number of guns sold without a background check.”
Isn’t he basically admitting that background checks are useless?
@Erin:
No, he said this (paraphrased):
All the guns that are bought with a background check have no effect on crime.
Of course, if gun purchases are related to crime rates at all, that means that the only possible conclusion for the OBSERVED fall in crime is that it is due to all the guns that are bought WITHOUT a background check.