From the Boston Globe, yesterday (20 December):
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/12/20/gun_permits_surge_in_state/?page=2http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x276454....“I think the more guns, the more gun violence,’’ said John Rosenthal, founder of Stop Handgun Violence, which led the push for the state’s groundbreaking Gun Control Act of 1998, widely seen as the nation’s most comprehensive gun legislation.....
....Kristen Rand, legislative director at the Violence Policy Center in Washington, pointed to troad-rage shootings as cautionary tales.
“People may feel safer with a handgun, but all the evidence points to the opposite,’’ she said. “We see it happen across the country. They are not enhancing public safety; they are a public safety problem.’’....
Reuters, today (21 December):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4193932
Crime Drops In First Half Of 2009: FBI
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Violent crime in the United States, including murder and robbery, dropped 4.4 percent in the first half of 2009 and property crime like car thefts also dropped, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Monday.
The latest statistics suggest that U.S. violent crime could drop for a third full year in a row, a steady decline despite the harsh economic recession that some policymakers and police groups had feared would lead to an upward spike.
The number of murders plummeted 10 percent compared to the same six-month period in 2008, while robbery fell 6.5 percent and forcible rape dropped 3.3 percent, according to preliminary statistics released by the FBI.
Violent crime in all of 2008 fell 1.9 percent from 2007.....