The U.S. FBI released the 2018 “Crime in the United States” report, that gives crime data from law enforcement agencies around the country. The report goes on to say that violent crimes have decreased when compared with estimates from 2017. Robbery offenses fell 12 percent, murder and non-negligent manslaughter offenses fell 6.2 percent and the estimated volume of aggravated assault offenses decreased 0.4 percent.

Contrary to mainstream media reports, the 2018 data reflected continuation of a violent-crime-rate decline, even as the number of firearms increased and the so-called “Assault Weapons” ban expired, crime has declined. Rifles accounted for fewer homicides (2 percent) than knives (11 percent), hands, fists and feet (5 percent) and blunt objects (3 percent).

In October (2019) economist John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center released a copy of the “Concealed Carry Pistol” permit holders across the United States and the number of concealed pistol permits soared to over 18.66 million people. This is a 304 percent increase since 2007 and about an eight percent increase over the permits issued in 2018.

This figure of almost 19 million people with handgun permits does not include people who have shotguns and rifles that are not accountable or factored in the 19 million. It would be safe to say that well over 30 million people have a firearm to defend themselves and their love ones, and this number does not include the increasing number of states that do not require a permit to legally carry a firearm.

There are some states that provide gun permit holder data by gender and race. Among those states, women averaged 26.5 percent of permit holders. The increase in female permit holders outpaced the increase in male permit holders across the same time period, and the number of African American permit holders increased faster than the number of white permit holders. The rates of permit holding among American Indian, Asian, black and white females all grew much faster than the rates for males in those racial groups.

The report findings should reinforce the fact that law-abiding gun owners are not criminals and should not be the targets of efforts to reduce crime. Efforts to demonize law-abiding gun owners will only increase as politicians get desperate for attention from a fawning media. They will ignore that crime rates have fallen, that the number of gun permit holders has increased and that criminals do not follow laws.

jack danchak is the President of the Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs of Sullivan County.