Not only are gun sales up, but ammunition has been in terribly short supply ever since Obama won the election. But the fact that murder rates are down has no correlation to the President.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports a ten percent drop in murders during the first six months of 2009, while at a time US gun sales are going through the roof, according to reports obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police. Meanwhile, gun sales to private citizens soared almost 30 percent during that same period.
Gun rights advocates claim that these numbers are further proof that there is no correlation between gun ownership and violent crime, state officials from the Second Amendment Foundation, a civil rights group. Further, the SAF contends that the increase in private citizen gun-ownership may have had an impact on reducing violent crime.
A survey conducted by the National Association of Chiefs of Police of the nation’s police executives found:
- 93.6 percent of the respondents supported civilian gun-ownership rights.
- 96 percent of the police chiefs and sheriffs believe criminals obtain firearms from illegal sources.
- 92.2 percent revealed they hadn’t arrested anyone for violation of the so-called “waiting period” laws.
- When asked if citizens’ concealed-weapons permits would reduce violent crime, 63.1 percent said yes.
Percentage increase over last year of background checks of firearm purchasers for the first six months of 2009:
| January | 28.8 |
| February | 23.3 |
| March | 29.9 |
| April | 30.3 |
| May | 15.5 |
| June | 18.1 |
“What this shows,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, “is that gun prohibitionists are all wrong when they argue that more guns result in more crime. Firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens are no threat to anyone. Perhaps violent criminals were actually discouraged by all of those gun sales earlier this year, because the media made a point of reporting the booming gun market.
“Anti-gunners,” he continued, “have lost another one of their baseless arguments. Millions of Americans bought guns during the first six months of this year, many of them for the first time. Yet with all of those new guns in circulation, coupled with an increased demand for concealed carry licenses around the country, the streets have not been awash in blood, as gun banners repeatedly predict.
