Firearms Sales Up, Crime Down

The NSSF Bullet Points reported on Monday:

Since the surge in firearms purchases began in October 2008, if one believes the oft-repeated mantra that "most crime guns are rapidly diverted from retailers to the street via straw purchasers," then there should have been a surge in homicides and other violent crime. There was not. In fact, preliminary figures released by the FBI today show that all forms of violent crime were down in 2009 from 2008, with homicides showing the greatest percentage decline (7.2 percent). These declines in crime came during a year when firearm sales were at historic
highs.

Add to this what NRA Board Member Todd Rathner reported in his T. Jeffrey Safari Co. email today:

The NRA Convention in Charlotte NC was excellent. Attendance was over 72,000 a new record for the NRA and a record for the city of Charlotte. With over 72,000 people descending on the city (many of whom had guns) remarkably there was a DECREASE in crime during the time we were there. Hmm I wonder if that was just a coincidence? I doubt it since the same thing happened in Phoenix last year. The phoenix police said the NRA was the most polite, incident free crowd they had ever experienced. All those people and all those guns and not one single bad incident. Anybody surprised?

Finally, in 2nd Amendment friendly Virginia, the violent crime rate dropped according to a Virginia State Police report on 2009 Crime in Virginia. The Washington Post Crime Scene Blog posted, by way of an Associated Press report:

...violent crimes fell by 9.7 percent (in 2009) compared to 2008. Motor vehicle and other property thefts and drug offenses also decreased, the report said. Juvenile arrests also declined but adult arrests increased, according to the report. Juvenile arrests for violent crimes and other serious offenses fell by 4.1 percent, according to the report, while arrests for trespassing, bad checks and other lesser offenses dropped by 13.9 percent.

The report did note that adult arrests for serious offenses increased by 3.9 percent, and arrests for less serious offenses rose by 5 percent, while total arrests increased by 2.9 percent, from 339,189 in 2008 to 345,884 in 2009. The bottom line is though that in a state that has very few restrictions on firearms, the violent crime rate dropped at the same time the number of firearms in the Commonwealth increased as well as the number of citizens requesting concealed handgun permits. Good news for Virginians, both those that do and don't own or carry firearms.