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Gavin Newsom understates Californias big drop in gun homicides
http://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2016/nov/16/gavin-newsom/gavin-newsom-understates-californias-rapid-drop-gu/SNIP
Our ruling
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said California has seen a "56 percent decline in the gun murder rate" since it enacted strong gun control laws in the 1990s.
Newsom appears to have mixed up the gun murder rate with the gun death rate. California’s gun murder rate dropped 67 percent between 1993 and 2014, according to a review of fatal injury report data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A similar, though somewhat smaller, drop in the gun murder rate took place nationwide during this period.
Newsom’s overall point is correct: Gun deaths, including gun homicides, have dropped significantly in California since the state imposed the new laws.
We are not fact-checking the cause of this drop. Gun rights and gun control groups have different opinions on this.
What is clear is that gun homicides have declined significantly, and even faster than what Newsom stated.
His claim needs this key clarification.
We rate it Mostly True.
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
{Ca...} gun murders fell from 9.60 per 100,000 residents in 1993 to 3.25 per 100,000 in 2011.
Nationwide, gun murder rates dropped from 7.0 homicides in 1993 to 2.75 per 100,000 in 2011.
"National rates of gun homicide and other violent gun crimes are strikingly lower now than during their peak in the mid-1990s, paralleling a general decline in violent crime, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data...
Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49% lower in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation’s population grew. The victimization rate for other violent crimes with a firearm—assaults, robberies and sex crimes—was 75% lower in 2011 than in 1993. Violent non-fatal crime victimization overall (with or without a firearm) also is down markedly (72%) over two decades."
Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49% lower in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation’s population grew. The victimization rate for other violent crimes with a firearm—assaults, robberies and sex crimes—was 75% lower in 2011 than in 1993. Violent non-fatal crime victimization overall (with or without a firearm) also is down markedly (72%) over two decades."
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/07/gun-homicide-rate-down-49-since-1993-peak-public-unaware/
