A new Rasmussen survey has revealed that 60 percent of “likely U.S. voters” think violent crime is on the rise, although the percentage is actually down two points from October 2022.
This may come as a surprise to the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ), which reported in January that violent crime actually declined last year, with homicides down 4 percent from 2021, aggravated assault down 3.5 percent and assaults involving firearms down 7 percent.
Still, gun sales are apparently continuing at a level of more than one million a month, based on National Instant Check System data adjusted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Raw data from the FBI’s NICS system shows there were 3,036,667 initiated background checks in March. However, NSSF does a monthly adjustment reflecting more closely the number of NICS checks initiated that actually involve firearms transactions. Their estimate for March is 1.56 million, reflecting a 6.8 percent decline compared to the March 2022 adjusted figure of 1.67 million.
Still, March was the 44th consecutive month when the adjusted background check number exceeded 1 million, NSSF noted.
Police manpower has declined in several major cities, which may be one contributing factor to the continued gun sales. People are taking more responsibility for their own safety, and stories involving defensive gun use by private citizens are being reported more widely. For example, the shooting of a suspected car thief in San Antonio, Texas by the vehicle’s owner several days ago has apparently made news all over the world, according to TheGunMag.com.
According to Rasmussen, 77 percent of Republicans, 40 percent of identified Democrats, and 63 percent of independent “voters believe the problem of violent crime in America is getting worse.”
On the other hand, Rasmussen says, “ 30% of Democrats, 12% of Republicans, and 10% of unaffiliated voters think the crime problem is getting better.”
The survey was conducted March 27-29 with a margin of sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence, Rasmussen noted.
The numbers are almost evenly split when it comes to the public’s perception of how President Joe Biden is handling crime issues, with 42 percent giving him a poor rating and 41 percent saying he is doing good to excellent on crime and law enforcement issues.
So, while violent crime was down last year, could a contributing factor in the public’s perception be media sensationalism of violent crime? Biden and Capitol Hill Democrats, along with the gun prohibition lobby moved swiftly to exploit the school shooting in Nashville ten days ago. Gun rights groups responded, including the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, which said the country doesn’t have a “gun crisis,” but a “mental health crisis.”
While anti-gunners want to spend tens of millions of dollars over the next five years to allow the CDC to “study” the issue, CCRKBA called for Congress to spend the money more wisely, by using it to help make schools “hard targets.”
In a blistering news release, CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb called the “research” proposal to be a “boondoggle” which would only, and predictably, conclude with recommendations for stricter gun laws and a call for additional research.
“Why spend five more years on unproductive research which,” Gottlieb contended, “we all know, will ultimately recommend more research? It translates to job perpetuation for bureaucrats who do nothing while our schools remain vulnerable soft targets.”
Conservative politicians and commentators reminded the public that Congress, state legislatures and various government buildings are all protected by armed security. The same strategy should be restored to schools, where far left officials have ended school resource officer programs in many areas.
Meanwhile, something of a microcosm is found in Washington State, where KOMO News is reporting a dramatic increase in road rage shootings across the state. In 2018, the State Patrol logged 465 incidents of road rage gunfire, and last year there were 1,058 incidents.
The number of active Evergreen State concealed pistol licenses is hovering above 698,000, indicating a fairly intense public safety concern. The World Population Review has listed Washington in the “Top Ten” of states with the highest crime rates. Washington comes in at Number 8 and neighboring Oregon is at Number 10. Both states have, in recent years, adopted what many consider are extremist gun control laws, some of which are currently being challenged in court. Obviously, say Washington gun rights activists, none of these gun control laws are working as promised.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
Democrats want the carnage to continue until they confiscate all of our defense weapons. Come and take it.
Democrats won’t confiscate anything they’ll be depending on the Blue Boys to do that. Little Johnny Traffic Ticket.
Sir, you are playing checkers, and not chess, which is how the older folks have turned our natural rights into government privileges. That is not the response the democrats are after, because then it would be legal to use force on the socialist enforcers. Who would not do well against us armed Citizens. The rise in minority crime is meant for the conservatives to trade Liberty for false security, and history and current times have shown the conservatives will expand the socialist enforcers and criminalize the 2nd Amendment, because of minority violence. Why would the left mess with a proven… Read more »
I don’t know where you live but I don’t know anybody that fits your description. I just turned 69. In my world it’s just the opposite of what you said, the youngsters, who want everything yesterday are the ones instituting government at every juncture. Go to your county GOP Executive Board meeting or a Federation of Republican Women’s meeting and report back what you see, if it’s like my state, you will see both parties are predominantly older. Try telling one of them they are scared and want to turn their swords into plowshares. Let me know how that works… Read more »
Great report Dave. Not only are the gun control laws not working but the amount of felony crimes are spreading twenty miles in either direction of city limits in the evergreen state. No wonder law abiding citizens in WA are getting concealed carry permits so fast. And let’s not forget pistol braces.
I got the news yesterday along with everybody else that the senate in WA. state has passed an assault weapons ban.It is supposed to be going now to the house where it is expected to be passed and then signed into law by the Guv. There will not be time to do anything or finish anything you have already started because it will become enacted immediately following the signing. What a CROCK!
Gun control laws are not supposed to stop crime. The politicians want crime, to use as a wedge issue and an excuse to keep going after citizens’ guns. They want only the state and gangsters to have guns, and then once all normal folks are disarmed, they’ll finally round up or wipe out the criminals in one fell swoop, and have a monopoly on violence. In the meanwhile, they want people to fear guns, and seek protection from the government. 23,000 gun laws on the books, and we have more murders per 100,000 now than 100 years ago, because criminals… Read more »
One can’t help wonder how much crime now goes unreported because either the police do nothing or the D.A. downgrades or refuses to prosecute, so why bother?
Tons in this state, and it’s a topic of discussion in conservative circles.
Probably need to give more credit to Biden and those other anti-gun politicians and their supporters for selling the guns, ammo and gun related products too.
Joe Biden and the Democrat party have been given the title of Firearms Salesman Of The Year
It’s crazy out on Washington streets. My job has me driving in excess 40,000 miles per year in a 5 county area of Washington, North & South from Tacoma to Castle Rock and East and West from the Cascade Curtain to the Coast. Basically the I-5 & State Hwy 101 & 112 corridors. Not the most congested parts of the state except for Tacoma. I don’t remember if you’re a native Dave, but you’ve lived here long enough to qualify in my books, the road rage issue can be laid squarely at the feet of the denizens of the Washington… Read more »
How things change. I remember visiting in the late ’80s and thinking the drivers were the most polite I’d ever seen.
I remember those days, it’s still illegal to honk your horn at a stoplight to encourage the driver to put down the phone and go. It used to be and still is, mostly, that we have courteous drivers. A 4 way stop used to be a place where drivers were so courteous you might sit there a minute or so while offering your turn to go to someone else, sorta crazy. I think GEICO Insurance, (a Seattle based insurer), did a cute commercial about that once, another iconic commercial is the 50 degree shirts off guy, that predominates this crazy… Read more »
BFB, Very astute analysis, sir. Another thing that really gets to me besides the loss of the Evergreen state is: Inslee is spending 1.4 million on the abortion pill and hoarding them so the people in WA. won’t have to cross state lines to get an abortion….. Now he probably doesn’t have a clue that those pills will expire in one year and will have to be trashed, which of course presents another issue, that they are hazardous materials. How does this asshat keep getting re-elected? What are God fearing and law abiding folks gonna do?
inslee wins because the dims own the media and our side keeps running has been and hold over candidates that really don’t appeal to the rank & file. Think Dino Rossi. He oozed slime. Loren Culp got owned by the liberal narrative and could not work free.
I don’t have any answers why people seem to be so masochistic and politically suicidal in this state.
Bob, I’m 4th generation Washingtonian. Great-grandparents homesteaded in eastern Lewis County more than a century ago. So, I’ve been around awhile.
Thanks for reading and sharing this AMMOLAND report!
Help make this story go viral.
“although the percentage is actually down two points”
Which I beleive reflects that confidence in polls and other ‘official’ and semi-official govt numbers is also at an all time low. People are waking up to the many lies they’ve been told for decades. Most now know better than to believe the fictional numbers they feed us.
Speaking of violent crime: Some 5 million+ illegal immigrants entered the country just during the first two years of the Biden administration alone, thanks to democrat open border policies. Several countries including Venezuela happily EMPTIED THEIR PRISONS of many of their very worst most violent criminals and crazies, and sent them to our southern border to join that flood. An easy way to slap back at the America they hate and save themselves a lot of money in the process. Fun with math. Grab your calculator and follow along. If just one half of one percent of that 5 million… Read more »
It’s up to us to push these stories out just like what you did here. We must also remember all politics are local, and as such we have more power than we realize and the leftards want to hide.
Keep showing these things to your neighbors, friends, folks at the grocery store, tavern, golf course, and wherever we go take the opportunity to spread the truth. Become Johnny Appleseed the planter of conservative ideas in your neighborhood. This is how the left snatches conservatives defeat from the jaws of victory. We can do it too, only better if we tried.
When society collapses, those who carry the big stick will speak softly and dispense retribution on those who would try and harm them.