11/27/2012
Virginia Commonwealth University Professor Thomas Baker has crunched the numbers in the state of Virginia, and has determined that gun sales in the state have climbed 73% since 2006, while the number of violent crimes involving guns has declined by more than 27%.
For years, we've heard the shrill voices of those who hate your guns. "More guns on the street means more crime!" "More guns equals more murder!" and so on. And yet, clearly that's not the case. So now the gun ban crowd is changing its tune.
Andrew Goddard, a gun control advocate in Virginia, told WTOP radio, "It's quite possible that you can sell a whole lot more guns and crime is still going down. But is the crime going down because more people are buying guns, or is the crime going down because the crime is going down?"
I don't know anyone who thinks a decline in violent crime can be attributed to a single factor. That's not the point. The point is that, despite Goddard's new assertion, the anti-gunners have been telling us that what's happening in Virginia is impossible. The point is people like Andrew Goddard think that Virginians would be safer with Chicago-style gun control laws, even though that flies in the face of logic and reality.
The point is, gun owners and the NRA have been right all along. It's the criminals, not the law-abiding gun owners, who are the issue. More guns, less crime isn't just "quite possible," it's a fact.
