Not a Peep from Obama: Violent Crime Reaches 42-Year Low

Last week, the FBI released its national crime report for 2012.

By a slight margin, the nation’s violent crime rate decreased in 2012–relative to 2011–making it the lowest it has been since 1970.

Compared to 1991, when it hit an all-time high, violent crime is down by 49 percent. The nation’s murder rate was unchanged in 2012; still lower than any time since 1963 and at nearly an all-time low.

Between 2011 and 2012, 24 states and the District of Columbia experienced decreases in their murder rates. There was no correlation of these trends with the severity of the states’ or the District’s gun control laws. Troubled Detroit, under Michigan’s law requiring a permit to purchase a handgun, had the highest murder rate among large cities, followed by Baltimore, under Maryland’s law imposing a seven-day waiting period on handgun purchases. But there was no relationship between other large cities’ murder rates and their gun control laws.

Plaxico Burress

NEW YORK (AP)—Former Super Bowl hero Plaxico Burress apologized to his family and tearfully kissed his pregnant wife and young son goodbye Tuesday before he was led away to prison to begin serving a two-year sentence on a weapons charge.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think, for what he did, and as full as prisons are, that he should get this sentance. Put a monitor on his leg, let him stay home for the sentence, but not prison.

They are saying, because of his celebrity status, they might have to keep him in maximum security. Then leave him at home. Let him pay for his incarceration rather than the taxpayers.

I don't see where any purpose is served, other than he might get killed, and then his family can sue the state for something, by his being in prison. He made a dumb mistake, as I recall, he shot himself in the leg, that was probably punishment enough.

I doubt that he will ever carry a gun again, but his jail time, to me, not necessary. And, it costs the state a lot of money, and Plaxico is probably a multi-millionaire. In this case, I don't think the punishment fits the crime.