You're Not Pulling the Wool Over My Eyes!

The Washington Times

John R. Lott, author of "More Guns, Less Crime", wrote a piece on how the expiration on the assault weapons ban has helped decrease crime rates, however, just a simple look at the statistics shows nothing of the sort.

FBI

The overall US crime rate has been decreasing at an average 3% since 1991. The decline from 2003 to 2004 was only 2.1%. My conclusion, the expiration of the ban had no effect on the crime rate.

As for the 7 states with their own bans, all but one, California, had their crime rate decline more than the national average. The crime rate in Hawaii fell an amazing 9%. Also, the crimes rates for New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts are all well below the national average.

I by no means support gun control, but if you're going to use statistics to back your claims, make sure they actually say what you want them to say.