Fact: All violent crime (including gun and non-gun murders) fell during the same period, 1992 to 1997. However, the percent of homicides committed with guns stayed the same. In 1992, 68% of murders were committed with guns; in 1997, it was still 68%.1 Thus, the decreased gun homicide rate was part of an overall declining crime rate, not an effect of the Brady Bill.
Fact: Gun possession by criminals has risen in the Brady years – 18% of state prisoners (16% before Brady) and 15% for federal prisoners (12% before Brady) are caught with firearms.2
Fact: The Brady law has so far failed to appreciably save lives.3
Fact: Violent crime started falling in 1991, three years before passage of the Brady law. The Brady law did not apply in 18 states, yet violent crime in those states fell just as quickly.4
Fact: A majority of Americans agree that the bill is worthless. 51% believe the act has been ineffective at reducing violent crime, and 56% believe it has had no impact on reducing the number of homicides in the U.S.5
This is an excerpt from “Gun Facts” by Guy Smith, available free from http://www.gunfacts.info
- FBI Uniform Crime Reports for 1992 and 1997 ↩
- Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Firearm Use by Offenders”, November 2001 ↩
- Dr. Jens Ludwig, Dr. Philip J. Cook, Journal of the American Medical Association, August 2000 ↩
- Prof John Lott, “Gun Licensing Leads to Increased Crime, Lost Lives”, L.A. Times, Aug 23, 2000, based on both the FBI Uniform Crime Statistics for 1990s and the U.S. Justice Department Crime Victimization Survey ↩
- Portrait of America survey, August 2000 ↩
on Dec 30th, 2009 at 3:51 am
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