Biden's 'guns first' approach to violent crime ignores basic facts

With violent crime increasing over the last two years, Americans want a solution. But resident Joe Biden constantly frames violent crime as only a gun problem. Again, it was the sole focus of Biden's speech in New York City on Thursday. Even when he mentions police or prosecutors, it was in terms of enforcing gun control laws.

But this "guns first" approach ignores a basic fact – over 92% of violent crimes in America do not involve firearms. And while Biden blames guns for the increase in violent crime, the latest data show that gun crimes fell dramatically.

Biden's proposal yesterday to "work to take those shooters off the streets as quickly as possible" is great, but with over 92% of violent crime not involving guns, why not promise to do this for all violent criminals?

The U.S. Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey, in the latest year available (2020), shows that there were 4,558,150 rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults, and the FBI reports 21,570 murders. Of those, 350,460 rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults (see Table 8) and 13,620 murders involved firearms. Adding those numbers up, 7.9% of violent crimes used guns.