Thanks to the pervasive media obsession with reporting homicides and blaming gun ownership, the public believes, contrary to fact, that homicides and gun deaths are increasing.  As a matter of fact, the number of privately owned guns has soared as gun homicides have fallen.  Ryan McMaken of Mises Wire reports:

The Pew Research Center reported last week that the murder rate was cut nearly in half from 7 per 100,000 in 1993 to 3.6 per 100,000 in 2013. Over the same period, overall gun deaths (including accidents and suicides) have fallen by one-third from 15.2 to 10.6 per 100,000.

In spite of this, Pew reports, the American public believes that homicides and gun deaths are increasing in the United States. Those who think violence is getting worse should probably watch less television and look around them instead. The murder rate in the US is currently similar to 1950s levels.

Meanwhile, the number of privately owned guns (and gun commerce in general) in the United States has increased substantially in recent decades.

 Source: Firearms Commerce in the US, Annual Statistical Update. (From BATF)

According to the World Bank, here are the homicide rates in the US since 1995:

Here's the homicide rate graphed against total new firearms (manufactured plus imported) in US (indexed with 1995 =100):

Of course, there are other factors involved and correlation does not prove causation. For instance, there is the so-called “mass incarceration” that has kept criminals off the street. Like gun ownership, this is a target of the left, which apparenty wants a higher crime rate (and appears to be getting its way in the big cities). Karl Marx could warn them of the dialectics at work: a rise in crime tends to hand political support to conservatives.

Hat tip: Clarice Feldman