Ending the Assault Weapons ban didn't cause the world to end

Armed Robbery rates plummet last year even though the so-called "assault weapons ban" expired. Armed robberies use guns, but it is that rate that fell despite increases in rapes and assault where guns are not usually used.

Crime in the United States

Here are the estimated numbers of crimes in the United States,

based on surveys done by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Type of crime . . . . . . . . . 2003. . . . . . . . . . . 2004

Violent crimes . . . . . . . . . 5,401,720. . . . . . .5,182,670

Rape/sexual assault . . . . .198,850. . . . . . . . 209,880

Armed robbery . . . . . . . . 596,130. . . . . . . . . 501,820

Assault. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,606,740. . . . . . . 4,470,960

I can't do the comparison for the first and second halves of the year that I did before with the UCR data (the ban ended on September 13, 2004), but this is still interesting.