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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Gun-control advocates are noticeably silent when crime rates decline. Their
multimillion-dollar lobbying efforts are designed to manufacture mass
anxiety that every gun owner is a potential killer. The statistics show
otherwise.
Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that violent
crime decreased 4 percent in 2011. The number of murders, rapes, robberies
and aggravated assaults all went down, continuing a pattern.
“This is not a one-year anomaly, but a steady decline in the FBI’s violent
-crime rates,” said Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the National Rifle
Association. “It would be disingenuous for anyone to not credit increased
self-defense laws to account for this decline.”
Mr. Arulanandam pointed out that only a handful of states had concealed-
carry programs 25 years ago, when the violent-crime rate peaked. Today, 41
states either allow carrying without a permit or have “shall issue” laws
that make it easy for just about any noncriminal to get a permit. Illinois
and Washington, D.C., are the only places that refuse to recognize the right
to bear arms. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence did not respond to
requests for comment.
If the gun grabbers were right, we’d be in the middle of a crime wave,
considering how many guns are on the streets. “Firearms sales have
increased substantially since right after the 2008 election,” said Bill
Brassard, spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF),
which represents the $4 billion firearms and ammunition industry. “There
was a leveling off in 2010, but now we’re seeing a surge again.”
The FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) serves
as one of the best indicators of gun sales because it counts each time
someone buys a gun. Checks hit an all-time high of 16.5 million last year.
In the first five months of this year, the numbers have gone up 10 percent
over the same period last year as Americans rush to the gun store in case
President Obama decides to exercise “more flexibility” in restricting guns
in a second term.
Gun manufacturing is the one private-sector industry “doing fine” on Mr.
Obama’s watch. Sturm, Ruger & Co. sold 1 million firearms in the first
quarter of 2012 - an amazing 50 percent increase from the first quarter of
2011. The jump was so steep that the company stopped accepting orders from
March to May to catch up with demand for its products.
Last month, Smith & Wesson announced a firearm-order backlog of
approximately $439 million by the end of April, up 135 percent from the same
quarter in 2011. Sales in that period were up 28 percent from 2011 and 14
percent over its own predictions to investors. NSSF estimates the industry
is responsible for approximately 180,000 jobs and has an annual impact on
the U.S. economy of $28 billion.
Mr. Obama could honestly take credit for this jobs program, economic boost
and the reduction in violent crime that has followed the spike in gun
ownership on his watch. Instead, he’s silent about his greatest positive
accomplishment.
Emily Miller is a senior editor for the Opinion pages at The Washington
Times. |
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