2013 was a banner year for gun sales, with a record 21,093,273 background checks for gun purchases completed. And with all those new guns in circulation, the FBI reports that murders and robberies have decreased.
On November 10, the FBI released a report showing “violent crimes in 2013 decreased 4.4 percent when compared with 2012 figures, and the estimated number of property crimes decreased 4.1 percent.” That slide continued in 2014, albeit at a lesser pace in come categories.
For example, at the beginning of this week, the FBI released numbers showing that murder fell by 0.5 percent compared to 2013, which is “a 3.2 percent decrease from the 2010 figure, and a 14.9 percent drop from the number in 2005.” Moreover, robberies “decreased 5.6 percent from the 2013 estimate and 11.7 percent from the 2010 estimate.” The figures for 2014 represent a “22.0 percent [decrease] from the 2005 estimate.”
Again, these decreases follow a year in which the number of background checks conducted for gun purchases broke records. Moreover, the decreases in murder and robbery took place in a year in which gun sales continued to be so brisk that a background check was conducted almost every three seconds on Black Friday. CNN reported that the “average of almost three [background checks] per second [was] nearly three times the daily average” seen throughout the rest of the 2014.
On April 8, 2015, the Washington Times reported that the 2013 surge in gun sales forced manufacturers to make “10.8 million” weapons that year, just to meet demand. That is nearly twice as many guns as manufacturers made in 2010. Yet 2014 figures show murder has fallen 3.2 percent since 2010 and robberies are down 11.7 since 2010 as well.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at [email protected]
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