> At 03:07 PM 7/10/98 -0400, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> >That chart shows all crimes including non-gun crimes. Total crimes are
> >down, but the percent of violent crimes using guns is way up.
> >
> ><http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/FSAC/Crime_in_Brief/murder.asp>
> >shows per-capita murders down between 1990-1995, but gun murders up from
> >62.9% to 66.7%.
> >
> ><http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/FSAC/Crime_in_Brief/robbery.asp>
> >shows per-capita robberies way down between 1990-1995, but gun robberies
> >up from 37.6% to 38.9%.
>
> This seems what one would expect: more guns in the hands of the public
> makes non-gun murders and robberies more problematical, so there are fewer
> of them, while the determined murderers and robbers are forced to start
> using guns. On the whole, it seems to result in a net gain in public
> safety....
>
> -Bradley Felton zim@pobox.com
I think you are probably correct. What was interesting in the statistics is that rate of gun use is up for murders and robberies but is not up for assaults. This may indicate that murders and robberies are pre-planned with guns as the preferred weapons, while assaults are more likely to be unplanned responses or outbursts.
The other trend I noticed on the rape statistics page, is that the number of combined rapes and attempted rapes is about the same, but the number of rapes is way up, and the number of attempted rapes is way down. Maybe this indicates that guns are much more successful in a rape than other weapons?
-- Harvey Newstrom <mailto:harv@gate.net> Author, Engineer, Entrepreneur, <http://www.gate.net/~harv> Consultant, Researcher, Scientist. <ldap://certserver.pgp.com>