On Duty Police Gunshot Deaths Fall to Lowest Level Since 1956

[benEzra]

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/dec/29/fewer-police-officers-died-on-duty-this-year-repor/

Gunfire deaths dropped to 41 officers this year, compared with 68 in 2007. The 2008 number represented the lowest total since 1956 -- when there were 35 -- and was far below the peak of 156 officers killed by gunfire in 1973.

Traffic-related deaths also fell, with 71 officers killed this year, compared with 83 in 2007. It was the 11th consecutive year that more officers were killed in traffic incidents than any other cause.

Note to the Brady Campaign: The sky is not, in fact, falling, even though rifles with protruding handgrips remain legal. Whoda thunk it?

[derby378]

1. Interesting...

I do wonder, however, how this compares with the total number of firearm-related injuries police officers suffered this year. If the number of injuries is essentially unchanged from 2007, the drop in fatalities could be attributed to better training, better equipment and/or armor, etc.

[iverglas]

2. Wish it were the same here

Actually, I'm not finding any info on a quick search, but in the last couple of years we've had a few nasty police killing incidents, you may recall.

I'd thought we might have lost RCMP members in Afghanistan, but I'm not finding anything on that either. One of our programs there is to train local police. I've watched a couple of in-depth news things on that, and it's extremely interesting. Doesn't outweigh the wrongheadedness of the mission, but it's an actual contribution.

Anyhow, glad to hear the neighbours' news.

[onehandle]

3. Seems like the Brady Campaign should get some credit:

15th Anniversary Report Highlights Success of Brady Background Checks

Washington, DC - Fifteen years ago today, President William Jefferson Clinton signed the Brady Bill into law, America's first critical step toward requiring criminal background checks for all firearm purchases in order to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

A new Brady Center report, called Brady Background Checks: 15 Years of Saving Lives, details the Brady Law's long record of success, available here: http://www.bradycenter.org/xshare/pdf/reports/brady-law-15years.pdf. A true success story, the law has blocked 1.6 million bad sales to felons, fugitives, domestic abusers, dangerously mentally ill and other prohibited purchasers - but the nation still allows too many sales to go forward without a Brady background check.

"This is a happy anniversary, but a reminder that we need to do more," said Sarah Brady, Chair of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

"Every day, Brady criminal background checks help save lives, reduce gun crime, and keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people," said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center. "Though just one of a handful of federal gun laws on the books, Americans can take pride in the Brady Law as a prime example of how strong gun laws work to protect our communities and our families," Helmke said. "But while we celebrate the Brady Law's huge success, we also must remember that too many sales - from so-called 'private sellers' at gun shows, through classified ads and by word of mouth - still don't require background checks," Helmke said.

Many Americans are too young to remember the long struggle to get the Brady Law passed by the Brady Center (formerly known as Handgun Control, Inc.) and Sarah Brady, the Republican activist and wife of former Reagan Press Secretary Jim Brady, who was wounded in an assassination attempt on President Reagan in March of 1981. Though Sarah Brady had been profoundly impacted by her husband's shooting, what made her become an activist for sensible gun laws was finding an unattended handgun next to her young son in a pickup truck - the gun's owner was the father of one of Sarah's son's friends, and was dropping the boy off after a play date.

Years earlier, in 1968, Congress had passed, and President Lyndon Johnson signed, the 1968 Gun Control Act, establishing categories of individuals who would be prohibited from purchasing firearms. But from 1968 until the Brady Law was signed in late 1993 and took effect three months later, gun dealers were not required to check to see if a prospective buyer was a prohibited purchaser. The would-be Presidential assassin who shot President Reagan and Jim Brady would have been rejected from purchasing a gun if a background check system had been in place.

The 1.6 million prohibited purchasers blocked from buying guns from licensed gun dealers include an estimated 842,000 convicted felons, 236,000 domestic abusers and 68,000 fugitives from justice. And in the 15 years since the Brady Law took effect, many types of gun crimes have dropped, including gun homicides. The total combined number of robberies and aggravated assaults committed with firearms decreased from 564,648 in 1993 to 377,331 in 2006, a decrease of 33 percent. And after the signing of the Brady Law, gun murders declined 32 percent, from 17,048 in 1993 to 11,566 in 2006.

Sarah Brady, who worked tirelessly for more than eight years to secure passage of the Brady Law, urged lawmakers to finish the job.

"Take it from Jim and me, this happy anniversary shows that background checks make a difference. But there is much more work to do," Mrs. Brady said. "Loopholes in the Brady Law mean about 40 percent of all gun sales in America take place without background checks. That means too many dangerous people are allowed to slip through the cracks and easily purchase firearms, fueling the illegal gun market and putting children and families at risk," Mrs. Brady said. "Jim and I urge the Obama Administration and the new Congress to take effective action to improve public safety by requiring Brady criminal background checks for all gun sales."

http://www.bradycampaign.org/media/release.php?release=1086

[benEzra]

5. The background check idea was a good one, and the Brady Campaign ran fairly well with it...

although they couldn't resist screwing gun owners by throwing in the mandatory waiting period.

FWIW, the Brady Bill was an OPTIONAL background check, on handguns only. It was replaced in the late 1990's by a mandatory point-of-sale background check system (NICS) that applied to all types of firearms (not just handguns). Even the NRA supported that bill, and I think it's a good idea.

The Brady train went off the rails after that, though. Ever since the Brady Bill, they have focused primarily on fighting lawful and responsible ownership, rather than fighting criminal misuse. If you haven't noticed, their current Priority One is to outlaw the most popular small- and intermediate-caliber rifles in America, even though rifles are consistently among the least misused of all firearms (only 3% of U.S. murders involve any type of rifle). We'll keep those, thanks...

[guntard]

9. Well, I give about as much creedance to Brady Center press releases as to NRA press releases

The Brady Center is simply following the NRA's lead in taking credit for everything that happens from better automotive safety to litters of cute kittens.

More prosaic reasons for the decline in officer shooting deaths include far better training than ever before, the increasingly widespread use of special tactical teams for serving felony warrants, and virtually ubiquitous use of body armor by ordinary patrol officers.

[ashling]

4. In related news, taser deaths are way up

:shrug:

[applegrove]

6. Must be the tasers.

[iverglas]

7. just for comparison

2007 was itself a spike.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22400744/

The report counted the deaths of 186 officers as of Dec. 26 {2007}, up from 145 last year. Eighty-one died in traffic incidents, which the report said surpassed their record of 78 set in 2000. Shooting deaths increased from 52 to 69, a rise of about 33 percent.

So 2008 (41) is a drop even from the much lower 2006 (52) numbers.


Mind you, those numbers are comparable to the total number of firearms homicides in the UK, e.g. -- not to compare the numbers, but to point out that low double-digit year-over-year variations in large populations do not necessarily indicate trends.

[benEzra]

8. Quite so. To see the trend, you have to look at a couple decades worth of data.

low double-digit year-over-year variations in large populations do not necessarily indicate trends.

Quite so. To see the trend, you have to look at a couple decades worth of data. From the U.S. Department of Justice:




From the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (includes all causes, not just shootings):




Year by year stats, though I'd be suspicious of the data before 1900 (probably lots of underreporting):

http://www.nleomf.com/TheMemorial/Facts/year.htm

It would be interesting to compare the number of deaths per capita and per the total number of LEO's, because I suspect that the raw numbers don't entirely do justice to the drop in the rate.


And I dare say it would be considerably lower today were it not for our singularly irrational approach to the drug issue. Police-officer murders also went up when alcohol prohibition was enacted and declined when it was repealed, even with the Depression going on.