Alphecca

Vermont Murder Rate Drops

Here in the land of the free, where gun control is nearly non-existent, where we all are still allowed our Bill of Rights, the state homicide rate dropped to almost half of last year... From the Burlington Free Press:

The number of Vermont homicides in 2004 fell by almost half from the previous year's tally, although several were high-profile or involved suspects who eluded capture for a time.

Preliminary state data show nine homicides last year, compared with 17 in 2003, according to the Vermont Criminal Information Center in Waterbury. The total of nine marks only the third time since 1990 that the figure has been in single digits, according to the center's annual crime reports.

Center director Max Schlueter said there is no easy way to explain why the number fluctuates as widely as it does.

"Typically the numbers are so small it doesn't take much," he said. "They're so idiosyncratic."

It's not the gun, it's the mutant who misuses it. And when people are allowed to arm and defend themselves, the mutants get the message and move to a state that allows the slaughter of innocents.

But for whatever reason, it's obvious that "lax" or -- in the classical definition of -- "liberal" gun laws do NOT mean an increase in crime. I believe it is the opposite. San Francisco: Take note!