Cops: Robbery suspected in fatal South Shore shooting

[DanTex]

81. Actually, another thing that the pro-gunners are wrong about is that gun ownership rates...

...have been rising. You're absolutely right that there are many factors that influence crime rates, so in order to study the effect of gun availibilty, simply looking at national changes over time doesn't tell you much. Various studies that have looked at the issue at a more granular level have shown that higher gun ownership is associated with higher rates of homicide.

Nevertheless, the often-repeated NRA talking point that gun ownership has been increasing for decades while crime rates have dropped is simply false. Actually the opposite is true. Gun ownership has been decreasing for decades. And there was a particularly steep decrease in the late 90s which was the same time that there was an especially sharp decrease in homicide rates.

It's strange that this myth is so pervasive, because the data is pretty clear. Here's the GSS data on gun ownership, which is considered the most accurate source of survey information by social scientists:
http://www.vpc.org/studies/ownership.pdf
And here are homicide rates:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ushomicidesbyweapon.svg