During the time period of 1993-2014, private gun ownership skyrocketed and firearm-related homicides plummeted in the United States.
Breitbart News previously reported on a 2012 Congressional Research Service study showing gun ownership jumped from 192 million privately owned guns in 1994 to 309 million in 2009. At the same time, the “firearm-related murder and non-negligent homicide” of 6.6 per 100,000 Americans in 1993 fell to 3.6 per 100,000 in 2000 and as far as 3.2 per 100,000 in 2011.
Now, newly released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) numbers show the firearm-related murder rate maintained this low rate through 2014 — the most recent year in which the CDC has numbers to report. CNS.news quoted CDC numbers showing the “firearm homicide rate” at 3.43 per 100,000 in 2014. At the same time, gun sales continued at a record-setting pace.
For example, Breitbart News reported that 2013 gun sales broke the previous annual gun sales record by a large margin. There were 21,093,723 background checks for gun buyers in 2013 alone. Gun sales continued apace in the following year, with Black Friday gun sales booming. CNN reported “almost three background checks per second” on Black Friday 2014.
In summary, the 192 million privately owned guns in 1994 swelled to 309 million privately owned guns in 2009 and continued to grow by leaps and bounds thereafter. An estimate of 330 to 340 million privately owned guns by the end of 2014 is no stretch. And while the theories of the left would suggest such a massive jump in gun ownership must result in more bloodshed, empirical evidence shows that more guns actually correlated with a sharp decline in the firearm-related homicide rate between 1993 and 2014.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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