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Florida crime rates dropping
Interesting data released today. Florida is, of course, the inventor of liberalized handgun concealed carry permits, of "castle doctrine" laws that allow lethal force in self defense without having to retreat, and a few other such measures.
Naturally, the Brady Campaign used Florida as their poster child for a gun-crazy state. Brady began an advertising campaign to warn tourists against entering this dangerous state. "The �Shoot First� law is a new law in Florida that police, prosecuting attorneys and gun violence prevention advocates worry may lead to the reckless use of guns on the streets of Florida cities." Sarah Brady intoned, ""The net effect of the new 'Shoot First' law in Florida is, unfortunately, precisely what we feared. People are dying who did not deserve to die." Just for good measure, Brady added "Gun violence in Florida could increase in 2005 because Congress failed to renew the federal assault weapon ban, which expired last fall, and Florida has no state law restricting assault weapons or rapid-fire ammunition magazines. Florida also does not require background checks at gun shows, does not require child-safety locks to be sold with guns, does not have any handgun safety standards to limit Saturday night specials and even forces police to let people carry hidden handguns in public."
Well, the Palm Beach Post reports that Florida's crime rates have fallen to the lowest level since 1971. "A telephone message left for comment after hours with the The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington, D.C. was not immediately returned."
You can get the report, in pdf format, here. It shows that, even though the state's population is growing, total homicides fell by 6.9%, and firearm homicides by 6.1%. Given the population increase, the decrease in rates would have been greater.
[UPDATE: Welcome, instavalanche! Take a look at the main page. Blogging has been a bit light since I've been working on creating the first Second Amendment documentary film. Starring, among other academics, Instapundit himself, not to mention Gene Volokh and Dave Kopel of the Volokh Conspiracy. All by coincidence -- when I started filming in early 2003, blog were unknown.
[UPDATE in light of comment: I know that NRA and Gun Owners of America rate candidates. I suspect that, come election time, you can find the ratings online somewhere, but don't have a url cite for it].
18 Comments
Kirk is right. Washington's shall issue law dates from 1961.
Kudos to Washington. Great post, though the stats don't surprise me!
OT, but related, the state senator from my distict recently announced that he will file a castle doctrine bill for Texas when the new session starts in January. I'm sure it'll pass. We're on a roll.
Great Post, Sort of makes me want to leave California where the crime rate just seems to climb and climb. Here is a question though, is there anywhere we can get listings of which persons running for office is gun friendly?
Boots
tsk, tsk David. You should know where the NRA ratings are. :)
NRA posts their ratings on their PVF website: www.nrapvf.org.
The drop in crime rates may not be related to gun control at all. Read Freakonomics see http://www.freakonomics.com/
Excellent post!
Too bad all 50 plus DC can't be like Vermont...no license, no test, no CCW, hang it in the back window, leave it on the seat. The only people incomfortable with this state of affairs are those who are up to no good.
When I and my wife moved to Seattle from Houston back in '93, before Texas had its "shall issue" law, my wife was appalled about how loose the gun laws were in Washington. Its not just the "shall issue" and a right to bear arms for self defense laws, there is no duty to retreat, and in general a very self defense friendly legal framework.
So I asked her, where do you feel safer? Seattle or Houston. That was a no brainer.
Guns are simply evil and everyone should be disarmed. If criminals knew homeowners and police didn't have guns, then they wouldn't have to resort to using them.
In San Francisco the murder rate is very high and even worse the arrest and conviction rate is the lowest in the United States. Our board of Supervisors "tried" to enact a total ban [cost to the city for the illegal legislation, 4 million dollars]on all handguns in spite of the police and District Attorney not being able to get homicides [percentage of population] below Washington DC's, the murder capital of the US. Our Senator Feinstein continually tries to ban all guns except the one's she carries "because she needs one for protection." Did you know that Politicians can easily get concealed gun permits by becoming honory Federal Marshalls? Ted Kennedy the main proponent for gun control has two body guards who carry UZI machine guns, just like Kofi Annans body guards, how can foreign nationals get gun permits to carry machine guns?
The FLiberals [Fake, non-Classical, Liberals] have been in effect working for the Crime Lobby for years, and directly against the right of self-defense and survival - including that of the Country. They are basically self-loathing narcissistic irrationalists who seek meaning in life by controlling others, regardless of outcome. In effect, they worship death, making them soul mates of the Islamofascists.
In not holding survival as a right when faced with sadomasochistic Islamofascists, they are also anti-evolutionary. In making humankind the ["unnatural"] enemy in the case of the complete hoax known as global warming, where all the U.N.IPCC "science" was bought and sold to then "prove" that gw will be a "disaster" and that human fossil fuel use is the "cause" [biases or presumed "facts" which the IPCC actually admits it predetermined], they also show they do not believe in evolution - since Man is not seen even as a part of Nature.
The FLiberals are doomed by their own guilt, lack of abiltiy to face reality, and death-wish and worship. But there is no need for the rest of us to let them drag us over the cliff as their fellow Shmoos - willing sacrifices to their God, Death. If I get enough courage, I'll tell you what I really think of them.
i suspect the premise for your item is sound...
however, your rate reduction figures are meaningless without comparison figures for the states as a whole. aiui, violent crime figures have been falling across the us for many years.
regards.
When it comes to self-defense laws Texas is I think pretty much in the forefront, with or without a new "Castle Doctrine".
Not that I'm opposed to any legal reinforcement of the right to self-defense, but Texas already lets you shoot home invaders under pretty much any circumstances and burglars on your property even if they're not in your home.
Proving the obvious once again: Criminals prefer unarmed victims.
Would be interesting to see if stats available for "justifiable" shootings. Is it just the fact that the bad guys realize they may have to deal with armed victims or are the victims actually "reducing" the number of bad guys.
I suspect it is the former as most bad guys are not very brave and will almost always look for the least amount of risk.
Preliminary figures indicate that, as a whole, law enforcement agencies throughout the Nation reported an increase of 2.5 percent in the number of violent crimes brought to their attention in 2005 when compared to figures reported for 2004. The violent crime category includes murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. The number of property crimes in the United States from January to December of 2005 decreased 1.6 percent when compared to data from the same time period in 2004. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft.
Source:FBI Uniform Crime Report
Florida may indeed be the vanguard of the modern rush to shall-issue concealed carry, but can I please get some kudos for my home state of Washington? We had shall-issue way back when nobody know it was cool, and we're so relaxed about it that we don't even require a test of any kind.