Reuters
The number of shootings in New York City has spiked by 13 percent so far this year, though the murder rate is on track to hit a 50-year low, a statistical paradox that experts said reflects quick medical response.
As of Sunday, some 507 people had been struck by bullets since Jan. 1 in New York City, up from 448 in the comparable period a year ago, according to data compiled by the New York City Police Department.
There has been a particular uptick in shootings over the past month, with 121 victims of gunfire over a 28-day period ending Sunday, compared with 86 for the same period last year, marking a 41 percent increase.
But homicides have continued to fall in the nation's largest city. There were 120 murders reported so far in 2014 compared with 140 a year earlier, a 15 percent decline, the data indicated. That puts the city on track to set a new low after posting a total of 333 murders last year, the fewest homicides recorded in citywide crime statistics dating back to 1963.
Police Commissioner William Bratton has said spikes and declines in crime rates are not unusual.
The declining homicide rate, despite an increase in shooting victims, reflects in part improved emergency medical response time, said Steven Messner, a criminal justice professor at the State University of New York at Albany.
Isn't that interesting. It seems the gun rights fanatics have been trying to pull a fast one over on us, again. Murder rates are dropping overall (just slightly) but the number of shootings has been increasing. Combined with the fact that fewer and fewer people own guns, in other words the average number of guns per (gun owning) capita has increased, this destroys one of their main talking points: more guns means less crime. Ha, take that.
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