Title: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware | Pew Research Center
Headings: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware
Pace of Decline Slows in Past Decade
Note
Chapter 1: Overview
Knowledge About Crime
What is Behind the Crime Decline?
U.S. Firearm Deaths
U.S. Firearm Crime Victimization
U.S. Other Non-fatal Crime
Context
About the Data
Roadmap to the Report
Notes on Terminology
Acknowledgments

Content: The victimization rate for other gun crimes plunged in the 1990s, then declined more slowly from 2000 to 2008. The rate appears to be higher in 2011 compared with 2008, but the increase is not statistically significant. Violent non-fatal crime victimization overall also dropped in the 1990s before declining more slowly from 2000 to 2010, then ticked up in 2011. Despite national attention to the issue of firearm violence, most Americans are unaware that gun crime is lower today than it was two decades ago. According to a new Pew Research Center survey, today 56% of Americans believe gun crime is higher than 20 years ago and only 12% think it is lower. Looking back 50 years, the U.S. gun homicide rate began rising in the 1960s, surged in the 1970s, and hit peaks in 1980 and the early 1990s. ( The number of homicides peaked in the early 1990s.) The plunge in homicides after that meant that firearm homicide rates in the late 2000s were equal to those not seen since the early 1960s. 1 The sharp decline in the U.S. gun homicide rate, combined with a slower decrease in the gun suicide
rate, means that gun suicides now account for six-in-ten firearms deaths, the highest share since at least 1981. Trends for robberies followed a similar long-term trajectory as homicides ( National Research Council, 2004 ), hitting a peak in the early 1990s before declining.