U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- One stunning revelation in the FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2020 is that armed private citizens fatally shot more criminals during the commission of felonies than police, a fact that seems to be avoided by the establishment media.
According to the FBI’s expanded homicide data for 2020, law enforcement used firearms 298 times in fatal line-of-duty shootings, while private citizens killed 343 suspected felons “during the commission of a felony.”
The data, which updates figures posted for 2019 last year, shows that in 2019, police and private citizens killed the same number of felons (334) during the commission of crimes.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, was not surprised by the new data.
“If the FBI data published in their crime report for 2020 is accurate,” he said, “it is ample evidence that the individual right to keep and bear arms for personal defense is as important today as it was when the Second Amendment was adopted as a cornerstone of the Bill of Rights.
“Gun prohibitionists who enjoy their own private security while promoting restrictive laws that take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens are world-class hypocrites,” Gottlieb added. “The same people who want to disarm honest citizens are typically those who support policies that are soft on criminals. They haven’t simply lost perspective; they’ve abandoned common sense.”
This happened against a backdrop of social unrest through most of 2020, beginning with the riots occurring in many big cities following the death of George Floyd while being restrained by police in Minneapolis. One major fallout from that incident is that in several jurisdictions efforts were mounted to defund police departments and cut their manpower.
Fewer police on the streets are being at least partly blamed for the rise in violent crime (5.6%) and specifically homicides and non-negligent manslaughter (29.4%) over the figures for 2019, according to Reuters.
Last year, according to the FBI’s Expanded Homicide Data Table 11, the murder total was 17,754 and guns accounted for roughly 76 percent of all victims. According to this chart, 13,620 people were murdered with firearms, the most prevalent weapon being a handgun (8,017). As is typical, rifles of any kind (the type isn’t specified in FBI reports) were used in a fraction of homicides (454) and shotguns even less (203).
However, there were 4,946 gun-related murders in which the type of firearm is not identified, so it is conceivable more rifles and shotguns were used by killers, though it would be logical to expect the ratios between handguns, rifles, and shotguns would remain roughly the same if the numbers were sorted out.
Once again, knives and other “cutting instruments” were used to kill more people (1,732) than rifles and shotguns combined. Additionally, 655 murder victims were beaten to death, according to the FBI.
“The use of deadly force is not something anybody wants,” CCRKBA’s Gottlieb observed, “but neither is being injured or killed by some thug during a violent criminal attack. Self-defense may be the oldest natural right, and every time we hear some politician, public official or gun control extremist call for citizen disarmament, we have to wonder which side they’re on. It certainly can’t be on the side of public safety.”
The New York Times reported last year’s “significant rise” in homicides “roughly coincided with the 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Of course, that pandemic has continued into 2021, and the violence has continued with it.
One other continuing phenomenon is the sale of firearms and ammunition. By some estimates, at least 8 million Americans bought guns for the first time last year.
“This data should send a message to criminals that their chances of recidivism are gradually shrinking,” said Gottlieb. “The tide has clearly turned.”
Concerns about personal safety led to many if not most of those purchases, and more than 800,000 more people obtained licenses or permits to carry guns despite the fact that in many states, the process was shut down because of the coronavirus outbreak. At least, that was the observation from the Crime Prevention Research Center, which put the number of active concealed carry licenses at more than 19.4 million. An update on that number is expected shortly.
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.
