Murders, aggravated assaults, and robberies involving guns have risen dramatically in Massachusetts since the state passed a comprehensive package of gun laws in 1998, the Boston Globe reports.
After two decades of generally declining homicide levels, the District recorded fewer than 100 killings in 2012 for the first time since the Kennedy administration.
It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible _ partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.
It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.
Violent crime nationwide dropped 6 percent in 2010, declining for the fourth straight year, while property crimes also were down for the eighth consecutive year, falling 2.7 percent, the FBI announced Monday.
The number of violent and property crimes reported continued to drop last year despite significant declines in the nation's economy, according to a Justice Department report Wednesday, which put the numbers at their lowest levels since the survey began in 1973.
The FBI said Monday that violent crime reported to police in 2009 declined for the third straight year.
"The quality of your gun-licensing laws is only as good as those surrounding you," James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminologist, told The Globe.
"It is very common to see this kind of goal-setting. They don't always reach their goal and that runs the risk of them being called a failure," Mr. Fox said.
