There are those who have suggested that banning firearms altogether will eliminate the violent crime rate in the United States, but FBI statistics suggest otherwise. According to a recent report Violent Crime Declined As Gun Sales Climbed in 2009:

Violent crime continued to fall in 2009, even as gun sales reached an all-time high, according to statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This is “proof positive that gun prohibitionists have been consistently and undeniably wrong,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said in a statement.

Released Tuesday, the violent crime statistics are part of the FBI’s yearly Uniform Crime Report, which collects crime statistics from localities all across the country and is the most comprehensive report on crime in America.

According to the FBI, the number of violent crimes of all types declined in 2009 by 5.3 percent and property crimes declined 4.6 percent. In fact, the rate of violent crime declined 6.1 percent below 2008 figures.

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In fact, the types of crime most likely to be committed with a firearm, murders and manslaughters, experienced one of the greatest rates of decline in 2009 – 7.3 percent.

While violent crime was going down in 2009, guns sales were experiencing a record year. According to data from the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System (NICS), 2009 was the best year on record for gun sales.

If you are legally armed in your home or on your person, one doesn’t need fancy statistics to tell you that you will be safer from violent crime. If your home is broken into in the middle of the night, and you have a firearm in the home, the chances of you or a member of your family becoming a gunshot victim drop significantly. The same is true if you are packing on your way to the car in a dark parking lot in the middle of the night.

While anti-second amendment protestors feared that issuance of conceal and carry licenses would lead to old west style confrontations in the streets of America, the exact opposite happened.

Furthermore, those pushing to ban certain types of weapons due to their supposed transfer to drug cartels in Mexico are once again missing the point: Guns don’t kill people – stupid people with guns kill people. Even if we were to completely prevent 100% of US-made weapons from entering Mexico, cartels would obtain their guns from countries like Venezuela and China.

We need a sensible gun policy in this country, and the extent of that policy should be that if you are a law abiding citizen and you want to arm yourself in public or in your home, you should be free to do so.

Hat tip Wheedle