The Democrat Party’s “defund the police” movement in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 overdose death caused murder rates across America to skyrocket to levels that haven’t been seen in decades. Curiously, the murder rate for the entire country dropped by about 13% in 2023. What caused this sudden turnaround in a trend that had been worsening in the previous two years? Second Amendment advocates think the answer is obvious.
In 2022, the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, otherwise simply known as the Bruen decision. In the ruling, the Supreme Court mandated that states do not have the power to refuse concealed-carry permits to law-abiding Americans, which is what states like New York, California, and Illinois have been doing for years.
After the ruling, applications for concealed-carry permits shot up in states with draconian gun laws. In Maryland, for example, the number of applications in 2022 was six times higher than the previous year, pre-Bruen.
Since criminals suddenly no longer had the confidence that their potential victims were unarmed, Gun Owners of America says this could have directly contributed to the overall drop in homicides. In addition to the Bruen decision, states like Nebraska and Alabama passed constitutional carry, and Florida passed permitless carry.
Maybe it’s all just a big coincidence that murder rates fell faster than ever before in the country right as more law-abiding Americans were obtaining concealed-carry permits. But it doesn’t seem like it, does it? If there is some other explanation as to why the murder rate fell in 2023, no one has voiced it out loud.
What do you think? Does arming more Americans make this a safer country to live in?
