6
Aug
2014
By Calvin at 07:59 GMT, 11 years ago
Twitter is awash this morning with this same tweet “11.1 million Americans now hold concealed carry permits -- up from an estimated 4.6 million in 2007”. When you go to the link sent with the tweet to the Crime Prevention Research Center you’ll find a short promo pointing readers towards a report entitled Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States.
The promo tells us that while concealed carry permits have gone up by 130 percent, murder rates have fallen from 5.6 to 4.4 per 100,000 between 2007 and the preliminary estimates for 2013 – a reduction of 22 percent. It also tells us that overall violent crime also fell by 22 percent over the same period of time.
Without reading the report in detail (slap my hand) there is a suggestion being made here in the headlines that more guns equals fewer murders and violent crime.
On this side of the pond, apart from an increase in serious violent crime in 2008 of 7%, this crime category has been on a steady decline since 2001. Interestingly, the biggest decline has been seen amongst young adult victims.
Our experts, Professor Jonathon Shepherd of Cardiff University in particular, tell us that violent crime has been falling in many Western countries and the full reason for this is not fully understood. However, he does say that a marked reduction in alcohol consumption amongst young people along with the higher cost of alcohol may have something to do with it (See this BBC report April 2014)
The murder rate in UK is around 1 per 100,000 of the population and estimates for violent crime gives us a figure of about 2.4 per 100,000, so a lot less than the US. Oddly enough we have far fewer guns and certainly don’t carry them around in our pockets.
I’m not making any connections here, but maybe it should be more guns for the Americans and less beer for the Brits
You know it makes sense!
BBC Report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27119689
Crime Prevention Research Center promo and report: http://crimepreventionresearchcenter.org/2014/07/new-report-from-crime-prevention-research-center-shows-11-1-million-americans-hold-concealed-carry-permits/
