Birds on the Brain

First, we are a less violent nation now than we’ve been in over forty years. In 2010, violent crime rates hit a low not seen since 1972; murder rates sunk to levels last experienced during the Kennedy Administration. Our perceptions of our own safety have shifted, as well. In the early 1980s, almost half of Americans told the General Social Survey (GSS) they were “afraid to walk alone at night” in their own neighborhoods; now only one-third feel this way.

Second, for all the attention given to America’s culture of guns, ownership of firearms is at or near all-time lows.  Since 1973, the GSS has been asking Americans whether they keep a gun in their home.  In the 1970s, about half of the nation said yes; today only about one-third do.  Driving the decline: a dramatic drop in ownership of pistols and shotguns, the very weapons most likely to be used in violent crimes….

Thus long-term trends suggest that we are in fact currently experiencing a waning culture of guns and violence in the United States.  This is undoubtedly helping to dampen the public’s support for both gun control and the death penalty.  There are growing partisan gaps on attitudes regarding the two policies, but enthusiasm for both has declined recently in lockstep with the drop in crime and violence.  The total effects of these trends on opinion and policy remain to be seen, but one thing is clear: they defy easy ideological explanation.

(via The Declining Culture of Guns and Violence in the United States — The Monkey Cage)