The numbers don’t lie, and even the mainstream media have to use actual statistics at times in their reports. NBC News bit the proverbial bullet and admitted this week that, yeah, A LOT more people are against gun control now than they were 25 years ago. So why are progressives losing the War on the Second Amendment so badly? NBC offers its best theory: the “remarkable” decline in violent crime over that period.
Since the 1990s, support for gun controls has fallen off dramatically while support for Constitutionally-protected gun rights has risen (as demonstrated by Gallup and the Pew). In 1990, 78% of Americans said they wanted “more strict” gun laws; last year, calls for stricter laws were down 31 points to 47%. Meanwhile, the number saying gun laws should be “less strict” or “kep the same” rose from below 20% in 1990 to above 50% in 2014.
Even widely-covered tragedies like the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting have only temporarily impacted public opinion. Following the horrific shooting, Gallup found the “more strict” number spiking at 58%, only to fall over the next few months back down to 49%.
Searching for possible explanations for the failing gun control agenda, NBC points to stunning decline in violent crime, which has declined by nearly half over the last 25 years. NBC gives some of the specifics on that “remarkable” reduction in crime:
The decline in violent crime over the past 25 years has been remarkable. In 1990, there were 729 violent crimes reported for every 100,000 people in the United States, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Statistics. The number got as high as 757 in 1992 – and then it began to fall steadily over the next 20 years.
By 2012, the figure was down to 386 violent crimes per 100,000 people.
Not only is violent crime down in general, the murder rate has also been cut in half (down from 9.4 murders per 100,000 to 4.7).
Caldwell, Leigh (206448258) / NBC News
But NBC does offer its left-leaning readership some hope: The horrific jobs Democrat-run big cities are doing in curbing violent crime might just turn things around for the progressive gun control agenda.
