Statistics drawn from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program show that the violent crime rate in 2018 hit its lowest level since 1971.

FBI crime stats show the “estimated rate of violent crime was 368.9 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants.” That is a 3.9 percent reduction in the rate when compared with 2017 stats, but the real lesson emerges when we look long term.

For example, Bearing Arms reports that the 2018 rate of violent crime was barely above the 1971 rate of 396 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants.

Ironically, one of the greatest differences between 1971 and 2018 is that there are exponentially more privately-owned firearms now than there were when the 1970s began. Rather than leading to more violent crime, as the left would suggest, the existence of millions of millions more privately-owned guns correlated with a lower rate of violent crime.

On December 4, 2013, Breitbart News reported a Congressional Research Service report showing the number of privately-owned guns jumped from 192 million firearms in 1994 to 310 million in 2009. The study showed that the “firearm-related murder and non-negligent homicide” fell sharply as the number of guns in private hands expanded.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.