Apartment tenants told they must get rid of their guns or move.

[spin]

84. Chances are greater far greater that you will die by the hands of a criminal with a gun rather than

an honest, sane and responsible gun owner and in reality the chances that you will be shot by a criminal are very slim.

Gun crime in the United States is approaching an all time low.

Released: May 7, 2013

Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
Pace of Decline Slows in Past Decade
by D’Vera Cohn, Paul Taylor, Mark Hugo Lopez, Catherine A. Gallagher, Kim Parker and Kevin T. Maass

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW

National rates of gun homicide and other violent gun crimes are strikingly lower now than during their peak in the mid-1990s, paralleling a general decline in violent crime, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. Beneath the long-term trend, though, are big differences by decade: Violence plunged through the 1990s, but has declined less dramatically since 2000.

National rates of gun homicide and other violent gun crimes are strikingly lower now than during their peak in the mid-1990s, paralleling a general decline in violent crime, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. Beneath the long-term trend, though, are big differences by decade: Violence plunged through the 1990s, but has declined less dramatically since 2000.

Nearly all the decline in the firearm homicide rate took place in the 1990s; the downward trend stopped in 2001 and resumed slowly in 2007. The victimization rate for other gun crimes plunged in the 1990s, then declined more slowly from 2000 to 2008. The rate appears to be higher in 2011 compared with 2008, but the increase is not statistically significant. Violent non-fatal crime victimization overall also dropped in the 1990s before declining more slowly from 2000 to 2010, then ticked up in 2011.

Despite national attention to the issue of firearm violence, most Americans are unaware that gun crime is lower today than it was two decades ago. According to a new Pew Research Center survey, today 56% of Americans believe gun crime is higher than 20 years ago and only 12% think it is lower.
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/07/gun-homicide-rate-down-49-since-1993-peak-public-unaware/

Gun Violence

How Prevalent is Gun Violence in America?
According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, 467,321 persons were victims of a crime committed with a firearm in 2011.[1] In the same year, data collected by the FBI show that firearms were used in 68 percent of murders, 41 percent of robbery offenses and 21 percent of aggravated assaults nationwide.[2]

Most homicides in the United States are committed with firearms, especially handguns.[3]
Homicides committed with firearms peaked in 1993 at 17,075, after which the figure steadily fell, reaching a low of 10,117 in 1999. Gun-related homicides increased slightly after that, to a high of 11,547 in 2006, before falling again to 10,869 in 2008.[4]

***snip***

Nonfatal Firearm-Related Crime
Nonfatal firearm-related crime has fallen significantly in recent years, from almost 1.3 million incidents in 1994 to a low of 331,618 incidents in 2008. Since then it has risen; in 2011 there were 414,562 incidents.[6]

As a percentage of all violent incidents (i.e., rape, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault), between 1993 and 2011, nonfatal gun crime has ranged from a high of 8 percent to a low of 5 percent. In 2011, firearm crimes comprised 8 percent of all violent crimes.[7]
http://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/gun-violence/

The main stream media does not often mention these statistics perhaps because it doesn't fit its agenda of promoting strong gun control.

Surprisingly Florida which as been widely criticized recently for lax gun control laws is experiencing an all time low in gun violence.

Florida firearm violence hits record low; concealed gun permits up
Debate continues over relationship between guns and crime

By JACOB CARPENTER
Posted January 6, 2013 at 5:15 a.m.

In the so-called Gunshine State, home to the most gun permits in the country, firearm violence has fallen to the lowest point on record.

As state and national legislators consider gun control laws in the wake of last month's Connecticut school shooting, Florida finds itself in a gun violence depression. The Firearm-involved violent crime rate has dropped 33 percent between 2007 and 2011, while the number of issued concealed weapons permits rose nearly 90 percent during that time, state records show.
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2013/jan/06/fla-firearm-violence-hits-record-low/

Now obviously I am a strong gun rights supporter. That may be because I could owe my existence to the fact that my mom had a tiny LadySmith revolver in her purse when she was attacked by a man who rushed her after hiding behind some bushes while she was walking home from work in the 1920s in Pennsylvania. She fired two shots over his head and he ran. The revolver held .22 short rounds which would have had little effect even if she had hit him in center body mass.

Still that doesn't mean that I do not support improved gun control laws in our nation. I simply realize that a firearm in the right hands can stop a tragedy just as a firearm in the wrong hands can cause one.

Therefore I support universal background checks and law enforcement efforts to punish criminals who carry and misuse firearms to attack citizens. Anyone who illegally carries a firearm or who straw purchases or smuggles one into the inner cities of our nation deserves to spend a long time in prison. Anyone who buys a firearm or ammunition should have a strong background check and proof that he/she has had firearms safety training.

I also support the legalization of some drugs as we lost our War on Drugs decades ago and many of the shootings in cities in Chicago are a result of drug gangs fighting over turf.

Still I can understand why some people have a hatred of firearms and gun owners. I doubt if anything I can say will alter your viewpoint and while I will consider your arguments, I doubt if they will cause me to change my views.

If it is ever possible that both sides of the gun control debate can ever sit down and honestly address the problem of gun violence in our nation, I am sure that we can make some serious headway. Unfortunately this is unlikely to happen as the gun rights groups insist that the solution is to arm most people and the gun control groups favor banning certain guns or all firearms. Compromise and progress is largely impossible at this time.