Baltimore's Good News

My opinion is that gun availability plays a major part in the number of crimes that take place.  If gun availability goes up and crime goes down, that simply means that it would have gone down much more had the gun factor decreased.

Although Baltimore can certainly rejoice in these numbers,  2011 is off to a bad start with three murders in the first three days.

Mayor Rawlings-Blake and Commissioner Bealefeld detailed significant and sustained crime reduction achieved in 2010, including:

• Homicide is down 6%. In 2010, Baltimore recorded the lowest homicide count since 1985, a 25-year low. There were 223 homicides in 2010, 15 fewer than in 2009.
• Gun homicide is down 13%. In 2009, 196 homicides were committed with a gun. In 2010, there were 171 gun homicides, a 13% decrease. Since 2005, 82% of homicides have been gun related. In 2010, 77% were gun related.
• Juvenile homicides and shootings are down 35%. Juvenile homicides are down 25% compared to 2009 - a 57% decrease compared with 2006. Juvenile shootings are down 38% compared to 2009 - a 66% decrease compared with 2007.
• Non Fatal Shootings are down 7%. In 2010, Baltimore recorded 420 shootings, 31 fewer than in 2009 and a 42% decrease compared to the 2000 total.
• Overall Gun Crime is down 16% from 2009 – 498 less victims of gun crime.
• Violent crime is down 4% in 2010, a 40% decrease compared to the 2000 total.
• Property crime is down 3% in 2010, a 43% decrease compared to the 2000 total.
• Total crime (Part I) is down 3% in 2010, a 42% decrease compared to the 2000 total.
• Between 1999 and 2009, Baltimore had the greatest drop in overall crime and property crime of the 20 most populous cities.