Why won't the media tell the truth about guns and murders? U.S. Murder Rates Down under Trump

American Thinker ^ | 09/18/2019 | Jack Hellner

[SeekAndFind]

Based on the reporting in the press, I bet the public has no idea that murders were down under President Trump, compared to President Obama, and murders rose throughout Obama’s term.

After murders rising from 2014 to 2016 under Obama, they leveled off in 2017 after Trump was elected and in 2018 there was a substantial drop.

So why does so much of the reporting make it appear that Trump is causing more violence?

I bet they also have no idea that the murder rate today in the U.S. per 100,000 residents is less than half what it was in the 1990’s despite so many more guns. In 1994 the rate was 9.0 per 100,000 people and in 2014 the rate was down to 4.5 per 100,000 despite there being around 70 million more guns.

Clearly the availability of guns is not causing the murder rate to rise. Many mass murders occur in no gun zones.

Every time there are murders with guns the media, in collusion with other Democrats want more gun laws but somehow when illegal immigrants kill people there is no demand for more laws. In fact, they don’t want existing laws enforced and people who want to enforce the laws Congress passed as their oaths require are called racists and xenophobes.

In 2016, the estimated number of murders in the nation was 17,250. This was an 8.6 percent increase from the 2015 estimate, a 16.1 percent increase from the 2012 figure, and a 0.7 percent rise from the number in 2007.

The murder rate in the United States in 2018 is on track to become the largest one-year drop in five years.

The numbers obviously aren’t final, and the FBI won’t formally report 2018’s murder figures until September 2019.

[SeekAndFind]

But based on a comparison of 2017 data and 2018 data for 66 large American cities (population over 250,000), we can observe the trend as it is occurring and offer a reasonable forecast. (The 2018 data I’ve collected are available here).

Murder rose 23 percent nationally between 2014 and 2016 before leveling off in 2017. Major increases in murder in Chicago and Baltimore received much of the national attention, but the increase occurred throughout the country.

A June 2018 report from the Small Arms Survey estimates that American civilians own 393 million guns, both legally and otherwise, out of a worldwide total of 857 million firearms. That’s up from 270 million civilian-owned guns domestically, and 650 million globally, in 2007, the last time the Swiss organization released an estimate.

[SeekAndFind]

[RandallFlagg]

America’s murder rate has been dropping steadily since 1986 -the year when concealed carry started to become more prominent.

And the democrats want to take away our guns.

[kearnyirish2]

“Why won’t the media tell the truth about guns and murders?”

Because they are paid collaborators with the elites that would disarm us?

[grobdriver]

Would like to see that chart superimposed on a chart for gun ownership in the United States...

I bet we'd see a big "X"

[BobL]

In the United States, the bad guys break in during the day, when (usually) no one is home.

In the UK, they break in at night, when they know people are home. In fact, in many cases, they don’t even break in, they simply open the front door. People living there have to deal with strangers testing to see if the door will open without force (they can hear the door knob jingle several times each night), and if it does open, they then have ‘clients’.

So what’s the difference? In the US, the bad guys don’t want to get shot by homeowners. In the UK they WANT their ‘clients’ home, as their clients know where the loot is.

Big difference.

[samtheman]

Graph of "Truth in the Media (all subjects)" over time:

[NorthMountain]

Most of that decrease in murder rate occurred while Slick Willie was President. The lowest murder rate shown there occurred while 0bama was pResident.

That chart doesn’t tell us much about Donald Trump.

[Reily]

Because if they did, it would be clear which demographic as the irresponsible behavior regarding guns

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=gun+homicides+by+race&qpvt=gun+homicides+by+race&FORM=IGRE

[Ransomed]

There’s a bunch of theories why all violent crime has dramatically decreased in the past several decades. Have no idea if any of them are true or not.

I’ve heard:

Corresponds to the leaded gas/pipes/paints bans and replacements.

Corresponds to abortion becoming legal. The poorest populations are usually the most likely to commit violent crime, also the most likely to have abortions. Inner cities have had the highest abortion rates.

Corresponds to increase in obesity. Fat inactive people don’t commit as much violence I guess.

Corresponds to decrease in outdoor activity and increase in electronic entertainment options. Sitting at home watching TV and playing video games instead of getting bored and entertaining themselves on the street.

Freegards

[NorthMountain]

Yeah … many theories indeed. Legal concealed carry really got moving in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s.

Point is, if you’re trying to use those stats to say something about Presidential politics, all it really does is make George HW Bush and (even more so) Bill Clinton look good. The other Bush, 0bama, and Trump have simply maintained status quo.

Assuming Presidential politics have anything to do with it.

[Ransomed]

“Assuming Presidential politics have anything to do with it.”

Yup. It could very well have nothing to do with political policy but be something cultural or technological.

Another one is the incarceration rate which started exploding in the 80’s and 90s.

Freegards

[Forgiven_Sinner]

This’ll require a lot of statistical work to tease out cause and effect.

The best explanation I’ve heard is the changing demographics: the population is older and most murders are by young males.

The President can advocate for guns or gun control, but Congress, States, and cities control the laws. The Courts decide the constitutionality of those laws. So the net is, the President isn’t likely to be a cause.

[jdietz]

Here is a link to the FBI Uniform crime report backing up what you say.

https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2018/preliminary-report/home

There is a downloadable Excel file showing the drop in crime under Trump.

[Sergio]

bkmk

[NTHockey]

It is time that the so-called free press “media” be correctly be referred to as the commedia. After all, they are the biggest laughing stock around.

[kearnyirish2]

I just refer to them as the “Dem media”.