On June 27, 2008 the United States Supreme Court made its first ruling upholding a lower court's decision to void a low based purely on Second Amendment grounds. The case was that of District of Columbia v. Heller, relating to an attempt by the District's attempts to curtail the rights of individuals to carry firearms in the city. The ruling also was the first in history to directly address whether "the right of the people to keep and bear arms", as stated in the Second Amendment, is an individual right in addition to a collective right applying to state-regulated militia.
The court's decision asserted that it is an individual right, a position maintained by the National Rifle Association and some 44 million American gun owners, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
The Gun Debate in America
The debate over gun ownership in the United States is a heated one, pitting gun advocates – believing in an argument of self-defense and hunting traditions – against gun control supporters – questioning the need for more than 240 million guns in private hands. Another article deals with the merits of the self-defense argument. This one is more concerned with the criminal use of guns.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, nonfatal and fatal firearm-related crimes have been on the decline in recent years. But the numbers are considerable all the same.
Gun Crime by the Numbers
In 1993, there were over one million nonfatal firearm-related crimes, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey, an ongoing survey of 134,000 persons bi-annually since 1972. By 2005, these had fallen to some 500,000 incidents. These were out of some 4.7 million violent crimes committed in 2005. A similar proportion of crimes since 1996, around 10%, have reportedly involved firearms. Clearly, guns are not the entire problem nor is their ban the entire solution.
Homicides in 2004 stood at 16,137, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's "Crime in the United States". Of these, roughly two-thirds involved firearms, as compared with 42% of robberies, and 22% of aggravated assaults. For this reason does one of the Department of Justice's gun websites explicitly state, "homicides are most often committed with guns, especially handguns."
Some of the most eye-catching statistics came from the National Center for Health Statistics, which reported in 2001 that while 39% of firearm-related deaths were homicides, 57% were suicides (the other 3% were classified as "unintentional" or unknown).
Gun Crime Trends
Though national figures are spotty, it does seem as if violent and firearm-related crimes are on the decline. Much like the drop in nonfatal incidents described earlier, the number of gunshot wounds treated in hospital emergency rooms fell 39% between 1993 and 1997 according to the Department of Justice website. Explanations for these trends may be more complicated than merely a drop in crimes, since many go unreported to police. They may also be related to reforms in some of the country's largest cities. Homicide rates, after all, are higher in metropolitan areas, as high as 12 per 100,000 people for cities with more than 250,000 inhabitants. That compares with a national homicide rate somewhere between three and six homicides per 100,000.
Numbers on homicide rates around the world are not easily comparable, given different reporting standards for instance. But some estimates put homicide rates in Western Europe below two murders per 100,000 people. Again, these numbers should not be taken purely at face value. But neither should they be immediately rejected.
Not All Crimes Are Gun Crimes
Other figures to keep in mind when considering gun crime:
- 500,000 guns are estimated stolen each year.
- According to a 1997 Survey of State Prison Inmates, 80% of those charged with a crime involving fun possession had gotten their firearm(s) by way of family, friends, street purchases, or illegal sources, bypassing the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System and other protocols put in place by states.
The relatively easy availability of guns in the United States may mean that some who want to commit murder or suicide can do so more easily than otherwise. But the numbers indicate that the vast majority of guns in America are not put to use against other human beings, and that guns are not essential to commit a crime. These thoughts and others, presented in another article, are worth considering when one enters the gun debate.
References:
U.S. Department of Justice – Bureau of Justice Statistics
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