Marta crime rate falls in wake of gun law
Devil's Advocate
Marta-crime-rate-falls-in-wake-of-gun-law
Marta crime rate falls in wake of gun law
December 14, 3:28 PM
Atlanta Gun Rights Examiner
Ed Stone
* One year anniversary of HB 89 arrives without dire consequences
Violent crime lower following law permitting legalized carry of firearms
on mass transit.
Today the Atlanta Gun Rights Examiner brings you a story you are not
going to see anywhere else.
The Georgia General Assembly passed HB 89 in 2008, which made criminal
prohibitions on carrying firearms on public transportation, in
restaurants that serve alcohol, in state parks, and in wildlife
management areas inapplicable to Georgians possessing a firearms
license. HB 89 took effect on July 1, 2008, and many predicted mass
bloodshed as a result. Nowhere was the controversy so acute as the city
of Atlanta and its public transportation system.
The city of Atlanta immediately declared the airport off limits to
firearms, and won a lawsuit filed by GeorgiaCarry.Org seeking to enjoin
arrests of people with firearms licenses at the Atlanta airport. The
other hot button issue was the carry of firearms on the Metropolitan
Atlanta Rapid Transit system, known affectionately to Atlantans by the
acronym MARTA. People predicted shootouts on the trains and busses, and
both the city of Atlanta and MARTA officials lobbied strenuously against
the bill.
MARTA bus drivers gathered more than 1,000 signatures on a petition to
have bullet proof shields installed, as if Georgia firearms licensees
had just been waiting for the new law to pass so that they could shoot a
bus driver. "We don't want cameras. Cameras don't save people's lives.
... We want something that gives us a fighting chance," said Terry
Jackson, the MARTA driver who started the petition. Beverly Scott,
MARTA's general manager, called the bill "vigilantism."
Atlanta's mayor went so far as to declare, "The presumption needs to be,
in order to have a safe city, that there are no concealed weapons."
MARTA Office of Government and Community Relations employee Rhonda
Briggins issued a widely distributed "Call to Action!" alert calling the
gun bill "a recipe for disaster."
So at the end of 2009, it is worth a look to see what actually happened
to crime rates on MARTA. Since July of 2008, there have been no news
stories of blazing gun battles on MARTA, which would surely have been
newsworthy events. That leaves interested researchers with the publicly
available crime rates, and they tell a story at odds with the hysterical
predictions of 2008.
Murders drop to zero
In 2007, MARTA had two murders occur on its property. In 2008, the year
the new law took effect and peaceable citizens began lawfully carrying
firearms on MARTA trains and busses, the number of murders dropped to
zero, and there has not been a murder reported on the system since.
Robbery rate drops
The murder rate was not the only category of violent crime to go down in
the wake of the new gun law. There were 94 robberies on the MARTA
system in 2007. In 2008, the year the new law took effect, the number
of robberies dropped to 71, and in 2009, it has dropped again to 67
(although we still have two weeks to go).
Overall rate lower
The overall rate per number of riders has also dropped since the new law
took effect.
Part I Crime Rate per 1,000,000 Riders
MARTA PART I CRIME RATE FY06* FY07* FY08* FY09*
PER 1,000 RIDERS 3.90% 3.34% 3.35% 3.09%
Not all categories of crime experienced a decrease, however. Aggravated
assaults went up from 2007 to 2008 and remained constant for 2009. The
statistics also reflect one rape in the first quarter of 2009, with none
in the previous three years.
You may view the raw numbers for yourself here.
So judge for yourself whether the predictions of massive bloodshed as a
result of the new law have come to pass. Alice Johnson, the leader of
Georgians for Gun Safety, a gun control group that lobbied against
permitting lawful carry of firearms on MARTA, sent an email in the
spring of 2008 claiming, "Innocent bystanders and law enforcement
personnel stand a greater chance of being accidentally shot if more
citizens carry concealed weapons in public . . ." and calling the bill
"deadly legislation" that "seriously compromises community safety."
The MARTA crime numbers speak for themselves. HB 89 has failed to live
up to its reputation as a serious compromiser of community safety. As
the General Assembly takes up new gun bills in 2010, relating to
carrying firearms lawfully in other places currently prohibited by law,
the public will do well to remember what the opponents of HB 89 said and
the actual result. In spite of the predictions, there have been no
reported misuses of a firearm by any of the hundreds of thousands of
Georgia firearms license holders on the MARTA system. In addition,
crime rates on MARTA fell after the new law took effect. It would be
nice to interview a few of the opponents of HB 89 now to hear whether
their opinions have been modified in the slightest.
Hiccum Blurpaedius
wrote:
Its about god damned time. Who needs an Archie Bunker Georgia Pig?