hack: I see you are ignoring that peak in 1991 .. So are you saying we have fewer guns now then we did in 1991? Why did our murder rates start a 20 decline in 1991?
Boomerang: Why did murder rates in DC start a dramatic 20 yr decline in 1991? when it's handgun ban was in effect? Reread previous post on cherry picking; Using your reason, why do you all harp about DC then?
DC... pop ...... totalcr... viol.... prop ... murder (RATES)
1962 -784,000-- 2,832 -- 605 -- 2,226 - 11.6 -handgun increases in DC
1976 -702,000-- 7,083 - 1,481 - 5,602 - 26.8 -handgun ban start
1991 -598,000- 10,768 - 2,453 - 8,314 - 80.6 -crime peaked
2008 -590,074- 6,561 -- 1,442 - 5,119 - 31.5 -handgun ban lifted
2011 -617,996-- 5,997 - 1,202 - 4,795 - 17.5
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/dccrime.htm
From 1991, your 'start year', to 2008 wen DC handgun ban lifted, murder rate in DC is down from 80.6 to 31.5, better than halved. This dramatic decline while DC handgun ban in effect. Do you see what I'm driving at now?
From 1962 to 1976, pre handgun ban, the national gunstock doubled & DC's murder rate went from 11.6 to 26.8, also doubling**. Why did DC murder rate double?
All you can point to is the handgun ban period, 1976 - 2008, where murder rate went from 27 to 31, near parity, but that would be ignoring, as you say, the 80.6 rate of 1991.
So if you want to tout gunstock increases being the reason for national murder rate falling from 1991 levels to now, you should attribute DC handgun ban for the same thing in DC.
It was the dramatic INCREASE in availability of guns in DC in the 60's & early 70's which helped cause the dramatic increase in violent crime, property crime, & total crime rates & murder rates to 1976. Higher rates increased thru 1991 but more guns also continued to proliferate.
asterisk: **(DC being invested by Md & Va where guns easily x'd borders, saw dramatic increase in handguns in DC, likely much more than doubled, I lived there about then.)
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