Crime Declines, People Still Think it's Worse

USA Today has the story here.  Last May, the LA Times had a similar story.  Not sure what's new in today's story.  The take away's are pretty much the same. From the USA story:

The rate of non-fatal violent gun crime victimization dropped 75% in the past 20 years; The gun homicide rate dropped 49% in the same period, according to numbers Pew researchers obtained from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The public doesn't get its feelings out of crime statistics," said Alfred Blumstein, an urban systems professor at Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University. "The public gets its feelings from particularly notorious events, and what the press talks about."

Which leads to the gun ban lobby trying to use this disconnect to their advantage:

"The public says 'I'm concerned, do something,' and the political system has to respond to that," he said.