According to the 2011 FBI Uniform Crime Report, violent crime in the United States has dropped 50 percent in the last 20 years. In 1992, it was 757.7 per 100,000, or 9.3 percent, versus 386.3 per 100,000, or 4.7 percent, in 2011.

There were 12,664 homicides in 2011. Of these, 8,583 were committed with a firearm and of those, only 373 with a rifle. Now realize that assault rifles (made-up name by the snooze media) are a subset of those 373 which means less than 3.8 percent of firearm homicides were committed with assault rifles and less than 2.6 percent of all homicides. There were more justifiable homicides by police (390) than there were homicides with assault rifles.

Other homicides: knives, 694; blunt objects, 496; hands/feet, 738; and other unspecified weapons, 853.

There were 754 violent crimes per 100,000 people in cities with a population of 250,000 or more compared to the national average of 386. Coincidentally, the locations of the highest violent crimes corresponded to metropolitan areas who vote Democrat and helped elect President Obama -- twice. Advice: Stay out of inner city metropolitan areas.

In Great Britain (rigid gun control), there were 1,361 violent crimes per 100,000 people.

Conclusion: Guns are not the problem, people and politicians are.

Roddy D. Riggs

Highland