Poll: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993, Public Unaware

National rates of gun homicide and other violent gun crimes are strikingly lower now than during their peak in the mid-1990s, paralleling a general decline in violent crime, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. 

Looking back 50 years, the U.S. gun homicide rate began rising in the 1960s, surged in the 1970s, and hit peaks in 1980 and the early 1990s, researchers found.  

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Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49% lower in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation’s population grew.  The victimization rate for other violent crimes with a firearm—assaults, robberies and sex crimes—was 75% lower in 2011 than in 1993.  Violent non-fatal crime victimization overall (with or without a firearm) also is down markedly (72%) over two decades.

Despite the attention to gun violence in recent months, most Americans are unaware that gun crime is markedly lower than it was two decades ago.   A new Pew Research Center survey conducted March 14-17 found that 56% of Americans believe the number of crimes involving a gun is higher than it was 20 years ago; only 12% say it is lower and 26% say it stayed the same.

Source and Infographic Credit: Pew Research Center