applegrove: Obama doing a masterful job of holding the gun discussion on CNN. For once we see leadership and the public holding a meeting on the issue without interference and all manner of obstruction from the NRA.
I was a bit disappointed Obama let several gun enthusiasts at the cnn town meeting get away with misleading info, such as I think it was the first speaker who remarked that gun violence was down while 'gun ownership' was up. Obama just let it pass as if it were a fact, rather than a misleading half truth. Gun ownership RATES went down about 30% over the past 20 years, along with the violent crime rates & murder rates. National gunstock went up from ~225 million early 90's to ~300 million now, but a solid percentage of this gunstock increase went to EXISTING gun owners, since the GO rate went down. That national gunstock rose does not prove more guns were a contributing cause for violent crime rate decline, since humans only have 2 hands, & 20 guns won't help any more than one or two.
Also, when Chicago came up, iirc by Obama himself, he failed to note that since the early 1990's to now, Chicago's violent crime rate ALSO went down by half. Chicago is the 3rd largest city in the USA, so of course it's not surprising that violent crime totals & murder totals will tend to be higher than the other ~365 American cities. Chicago's violent crime rates & murder rates are actually lower than about a dozen pro gun cities, and more when you include property crime & total them all.
Here's Chicago's declining murder totals since early 90's, all while their handgun ban was in effect. Note in 2011 after McDonald scotus case, Chicago allowed handguns, and lo & behold, murder totals went up from from 435 & 436 previous 2 years, to over 500, yet were guns held accountable for this increase? no, pro gun dumbunnies blamed gun control Chicago style.
murder totals, Chicago. Note Chicago's population has remained fairly stable since early 90's at ~2.8 million, so this would translate to a similar approx. 50% murder rate decline since then:
1992: 943 1993: 855 1994: 931
2009: 459 2010: 436 2011: 435 2012: 516 2013: 441 2014: 432 2015: 501
violent crime rates declined 2011 to now: To help gauge each city’s overall crime level, the FBI tracks eight “index crimes.” From 1993 to 2010, Chicago’s annual total dropped by 47 percent.
but Chicago also altered crime reporting methods circa 2011, so it's hard to judge the past 4 years: .. from 2010 to 2013, it dropped a stunning 56%, or nearly 19% per year.. Garry McCarthy, who became police chief in May 2011, accomplished that huge reduction in part by changing how certain crimes are categorized.
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May-2014/Chicago-crime-rates/
= new reply since forum marked as read
