This video offers a good analysis of the recent downward trend in violent-crime statistics compiled by the FBI:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooa98FHuaU0Following my return from Africa in 1994 and my decision in 1995 to settle in Tennessee, I spent the years 1997-2004 working for a small private college as a consultant, legal counsel, and Vice President for Administration. In that last capacity, in addition to other aspects of college administration, I supervised campus security. Those duties included compilation and submission of the monthly Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System (TIBRS) reports to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) regarding crime on campus. We were, of course, just a miniscule part of the Tennessee crime reporting network, but I had to attend yearly training sessions with representatives of every law enforcement agency in the state. TBI submits its combined TIBRS reports to the FBI, and I still follow those statistics out of interest.
The trend cited by Greg Stephens in his video is accurate. It is no coincidence, I submit, that the decrease in violent crime nationwide in recent years parallels the increase in the number of states adopting laws permitting law-abiding citizens to obtain CCW permits. In such states, the criminals can no longer know whether an intended victim will be able to meet force with force -- except, of course, in so-called gun-free zones that the "bad guys" view as merely "soft targets."
We shall be hearing a lot of distorted use of statistics in the forthcoming gun-control debate. There will be much "viewing with alarm" by politicians seeking television facetime. Their pontifications will bring to mind the old adage, "Figures don't lie, but liars can figure."
