Across the nation, a significant number of horrifying crimes, including multiple homicides, attacks on police officers, and random assaults have occurred using knives, boxcutters, hammers and other blunt instruments. According to FBI Statistics, the number of murders increased from 22,000 in 2020 to 22,900 in 2021. This constitutes an increase of 4.3% on top of the 29.4% increase in 2020.
That fact should deeply concern everyone who believes that our streets, public transportation facilities, and homes should not resemble a Mad Max movie.
The growth in crime parallels the implementation of lax policies in terms of punishment. Jim Quinn, writing in the New York Post, reports: “It should be a simple thing to understand: If you have more criminals on the street, you have more crime. But Gov. Kathy Hochul and our political leaders keep saying there is not enough data to show that bail reform has been a failure. Really? In 2019, under the “old” bail laws, New York City’s crime rate fell for the 27th year in a row. Under the new bail laws, by Jan. 1, 2020, more than 2,000 career criminal repeat offenders were released from city jails. They had an average of 12 prior arrests and seven prior convictions. Just 2½ months later, before COVID, city crime rose 34% over the same period in 2019. What a surprise! The city released almost every single defendant charged with drug dealing, car theft, burglary, street theft, and shoplifting from jail, and within weeks crime went up by double digits for the first time in almost three decades.”
Ignoring the devastating impact of progressive policies on crime is only part of the faulty response. The other portion is to downplay the crimes, and the criminals themselves, and blame the drastic statistics on the weapons, not the perpetrators. Following every report of a dramatic crime is an almost ritualistic demand for further curbs on the Second Amendment.
That reveals a key reason why Progressive district attorneys and politicians fail to respond appropriately to the upswing in crime. To them, crime isn’t the important issue. Reducing or eliminating the right to bear arms is.
Placing fighting crime behind the ideological goal of eliminating Second Amendment Rights is both counterproductive and irrational. Gun laws.com notes: “There is evidence indicating that increased prevalence of guns leads to decreased crime rates, just as there are many who claim that greater restrictive measures on the sale of guns lead to decreased crime rates.
Lawrence Reed, in a FEE article asks “How many lives are actually saved by gun ownership? This is a supremely important question that the grandstanders and ideologues usually—and conveniently—ignore… Guns prevent an estimated 2.5 million crimes a year, or 6,849 every day. Most often, the gun is never fired, and no blood (including the criminal’s) is shed.
- Every year, 400,000 life-threatening violent crimes are prevented using firearms.
- 60 percent of convicted felons admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they knew the victim was armed. Forty percent of convicted felons admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they thought the victim might be armed.
- Felons report that they avoid entering houses where people are at home because they fear being shot.
- Fewer than 1 percent of firearms are used in the commission of a crime.”
The progressive motivation to enact stricter gun control laws ignores the most salient question: Would those measures be effective in keeping weapons out of the hands of criminals? Will perpetrators intent on robbing, raping or murdering suddenly turn law abiding and refrain from obtaining weapons? The answer is a resounding no. The counter argument, that those laws would limit the manufacture and transportation of weapons, is equally foolish. Take a look at laws prohibiting similar treatment of drugs, measures that have failed miserably for decades.
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