FBI Uniform Crime Report Should Have Everyone Up In Arms

[Charlie T Waite]

Last month the FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2020 was released and regardless of drops of certain crime in certain areas, there is nothing here to cause celebration. Looking at the report we can see there was a rise in murders across the nation. To be fair and balanced, consider this quote from a CNN article:

The FBI released its annual Uniform Crime Report for 2020 on Monday, showing that the number of homicides increased nearly 30% from 2019, the largest single-year increase the agency has recorded since it began tracking these crimes in the 1960s.

The report, which is on par with preliminary numbers that were reported over the summer, also shows a 5% increase in violent crime between 2019 and 2020. Overall crimes reported by the FBI decreased by about 6% between 2019 and 2020.

There were more than 21,500 murders last year, a total not seen since the mid 1990s. The murder rate in 2020 was about 6.5 per 100,000 people, about 40% below what it was in the 1980s and 1990s, when homicides peaked in the United States.

The “cause” of this rise in murder has been blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic by many. Or if you ask Governor Phil Murphy from New Jersey why there have been upticks in crime you might chuckle at his answer. From a piece earlier this year:

There’s a lot of behavior right now. I suspect partly, if not a lot, due to coming out from the pandemic; 95 degree, high humidity weather does not help. There’s a lot of kinetic activity in the state right now and in the country.

In Monmouth County we saw some of that over the weekend. This is not just a matter specific to Atlantic City. We’ve seen upticks in gun violence in the state, in the country. We’ve just got to plead with people we get it. Everybody wants to get out there and unshackle themselves from this pandemic.

Right. Well, the alarming number of increase in murders has not escaped the watchful eyes of the Citizen’s Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. From a recent press release we’re confronted with more startling statistics. Not only are they noting the same uniform rise in murder, they do break down the number of murders due to firearms. This is relevant as Washington had in recent years implemented more so-called “gun control” laws which presumably had no effect on murders.

Authorities in Washington’s King County—epicenter of the Northwest’s gun prohibition movement—are alarmed at the continued rise in gun-related homicides and shooting incidents, but nowhere has anyone acknowledged that gun control laws they have supported are an utter failure, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“Nothing more clearly illustrates gun control lack of success than the situation in King County,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “It is reflective of the national trend revealed in the FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2020, showing murders up by 30 percent nationwide. If restricting the gun rights of law-abiding citizens worked, this should not be the case.”

Gottlieb recited the recent failed history of the Seattle-based, and billionaire-backed gun control crusade beginning in 2014 with statewide Initiative 594, requiring so-called “universal background checks” for all gun transfers. This was followed in 2015 by Seattle’s adoption of a special gun control tax on the sale of firearms and ammunition, which has never achieved the revenue forecast of $300,000 to $500,000 annually, and has only driven business out of the city. In 2018, Seattle’s wealthy anti-gun elitists pushed through another statewide gun control initiative, again contending it would reduce gun-related violent crime, but the exact opposite has happened.

I think it’s high time for Washington to concede defeat in their quest to nullify and neuter the Second Amendment. Clearly their measures should have quashed a rise in murder, however, much like the rest of the nation, murderers murdered on. Gottlieb continued his remarks:

“Let’s look at the embarrassing data,” Gottlieb suggested. “According to the report, this year’s 73 gun-related homicides in King County so far have already surpassed last year’s total of 69, and there are still more than two months to go in 2021. Last year Seattle saw 52 murders, and the year before that there were 35. Seattle’s gun tax took effect in 2016, and that year the city reported just 19 murders.

“Statewide,” he continued, “gun control has likewise failed. In 2015, the first full year after I-594 was passed, the state reported 209 slayings, of which 141 involved firearms, according to FBI data. Last year, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the state saw 302 murders, and their data shows 178 involving firearms. FBI data for 2019 shows 135 homicides involving firearms, so that’s quite a jump.

“Instead of using this data to push for even harsher laws,” Gottlieb said, “it is time for the gun prohibition lobby, not just in Washington but across the country, to admit their agenda has failed. It’s time to scrap extremist gun control laws and try something else like supporting our police and locking up violent criminals.”

When the political hacks that serve the anti-freedom caucus talk about “commonsense gun safety laws” or “commonsense gun control laws”, they do need to take a step back and listen to what Gottileb said. Clearly, the scrapping of these ridiculous and draconian measures that are being proposed or already implemented all over the Union would be the most commonsense thing that could be done. The subject of more guns equating to less crime has been hashed over time and time again. This is a near proven fact.

However, for whatever reason, progressive anti-freedom politicians and activists wish to push an agenda that not only does not make sense, nor is constitutional, nor do their plans ever equate to less crime…their agenda actually puts more of their own alleged constituents in prison. With the Biden-Harris administration making such crazy statements when running for office as “‘If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black”, has to make everyone stop and go “hmmm”. Another well known fact is that persons of color and minorities are disproportionally imprisoned by so-called “gun control” laws.

In reality, every politician that advocates for more laws, in particular more so-called “gun control” laws, are setting up more people of color and minorities to be thrown in prison. At this juncture our political elite should be listening more to Mr. Gottlieb and less to screaming commie mommies. It’ll save us all a lot of time and money in taxes while freedom hating iron curtain states and governmental bodies elect to defend their unconstitutional laws.