Good News on Gun Violence Could Shape Gun Control Debate

Gun violence in America is way down. So says the federal government less than a month after President Obama’s push to tighten background checks failed to pass in the Senate. Firearm homicides have declined 39 percent since 1993, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report released on May 7. A separate study by the Pew Research Center put the decline at an even more impressive 49 percent. Nonfatal gun crime also dropped over two decades—by an eye-opening 69 percent, according to the government.

This is unmistakably good news, and actually echoes the findings of other recent studies. Yet for those who would reform the nation’s gun laws, the positive data might create a problem just as attempts to revive tougher curbs are getting under way. The main argument gun control advocates have long made is that tighter restrictions on firearms are needed to cut crime.