To report a decline in the murder rate and to infer some decline in firearm violence of improvement in society in general without balancing that change against the improvements in trauma care in the same period is disingenuous at best and deceptive at worst.
War is the best medical research laboratory there is and Dubya’s GWOT began 18 years ago, during which time the gradual pace of trauma care evolution has been hastened notably by 18 years of continuous warfare. If all the GSWs of Y2K were to be repeated in 2019, a substantially higher number would survive today than did in 2000 for the simple fact that emergency response times are lower and trauma care is better.
So the firearm community needs to be careful what import we attach to the FBI’s numbers, else we’re trying to claim a propaganda victory that isn’t actually in the details.
What do the numbers say for non-fatal shootings? if those are down as well then perhaps we have a true improvement. If those are up that lends support for Sience’s theory.
October 4th, 2019 at 7:29 pm
Some of that downturn is a result of property crimes no longer being reported, because they know the police will do nothing.
October 7th, 2019 at 12:38 am
To report a decline in the murder rate and to infer some decline in firearm violence of improvement in society in general without balancing that change against the improvements in trauma care in the same period is disingenuous at best and deceptive at worst.
War is the best medical research laboratory there is and Dubya’s GWOT began 18 years ago, during which time the gradual pace of trauma care evolution has been hastened notably by 18 years of continuous warfare. If all the GSWs of Y2K were to be repeated in 2019, a substantially higher number would survive today than did in 2000 for the simple fact that emergency response times are lower and trauma care is better.
So the firearm community needs to be careful what import we attach to the FBI’s numbers, else we’re trying to claim a propaganda victory that isn’t actually in the details.
October 7th, 2019 at 8:43 am
What do the numbers say for non-fatal shootings? if those are down as well then perhaps we have a true improvement. If those are up that lends support for Sience’s theory.