Gun crime plunges, though most Americans think it has risen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gun-related homicides and other crimes involving guns have fallen sharply over the last two decades in the United States, but most Americans believe firearms crime is higher now than 20 years ago, according to an analysis and a separate poll released on Tuesday.

Some 11,101 gun-related homicides were reported in the United States in 2011, a figure that is down 39 percent from the 1993 peak, the Justice Department reported. Nonfatal firearm crimes declined by 69 percent to 467,300 in the same period.

Amid an intense national debate about gun control - which flared anew in the wake of a December shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 26 people dead - some 56 percent of Americans believe that gun crime is higher now than it was 20 years ago, the Pew Research Center said its poll showed.

Only 12 percent of Americans realize that gun crimes have fallen, the center said in a statement. The Pew survey was based on a March 14-17 survey of 924 adults and had a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.

The drop in gun crime mirrors a general fall in U.S. violent crime. The Justice Department study found that for fatal and nonfatal firearm crimes, most of the decline occurred from 1993 to 2002.

In 2011, about 70 percent of homicides and 8 percent of nonfatal violent crimes, such as rape, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault, were committed with a firearm, mainly a handgun.

From 2007 to 2011, about 1 percent of victims in nonfatal violent crimes reported using a firearm to defend themselves.

The Justice Department findings were based on data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, and the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Adler)

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‘Gosnell Should Be Acquitted’: Feminist Argues That Abortion Doc Should Be Released, Trial Is a ‘Sham’ — But It’s Not What You Think

There's at least one feminist out there openly arguing against Dr. Kermit Gosnell's murder trial. In an op-ed published today on Live Action News, Kristen Walker Hatten writes, "I say we acquit him," of the now-infamous abortion doctor.

You may already feel your blood boiling at the prospect, but Hatten has some unique stances -- ideas that the pro-choice side of the isle will patently reject. And her call for acquittal likely isn't what you'd expect. At the center of her arguments is the notion that abortion laws often spawn schizophrenic legal ramifications.

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In this March 8, 2010 photo, Dr. Kermit Gosnell is seen during an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News at his attorney's office in Philadelphia. (Photo: Philadelphia Daily News, Yong Kim.)

We'll let the pro-lifer, who embraces a "righteous, virtuous, intelligent and moral" form of feminism (she's a member of New Wave Feminists for Life), explain why she's pushing for a Gosnell acquittal:

There is nothing more disgusting about pulling a baby out and killing her than there is about sticking an instrument into the womb and killing her. Why is it worse if she's a foot away? Is the difference location? Should a few feet of space be the difference between "perfectly legal" and "first degree murder?"

It's preposterous. The whole trial is kind of a sham. Let him go. If it's legal a few feet to the left inside the womb, then why not just let it be legal a few feet to the right outside the womb?

Let him go. You know what, drop the charges. If I were the prosecuting attorney I'd say, "We thought about it, and we decided, y'know, if it's legal over here, then why not let it be legal over there? If it's legal at 24.5 weeks, then what the hell is the difference at 25 weeks? Or 33 weeks? Or a couple days after birth?"

Hatten's point? In her view, there isn't much difference between killing a baby inside of the mother's womb and doing so once the child has been born into the world. She points out that there's such a fine line between when it is and is not legal to terminate a baby's life that the parameters present in the Gosnell case -- and in any abortion scenario, really -- cause a bit of head-scratching.

The activist makes it clear that, in her view, abortionists are murderers, even if they are operating within the bounds of the law. Continuing to pose thought-provoking questions, she goes on to note that Gosnell falls under scrutiny for running a purportedly dirty clinic -- one that has been described by prosecutors as a "house of horrors." But Hatten asks, "Are we saying it's okay to kill babies if you use clean instruments and don't accidentally perforate the uterus?"

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Photo Credit: AP

Part of the issue she sees with the current Gosnell case is that "pro-abortion" people are condemning the doctor only because he "makes them look bad." If they were truly concerned with the charges against him, she essentially argues that they would have grander problems with the abortions that take place on a daily basis in America -- and not only the crimes Gosnell is accused of committing.

"I want Kermit Gosnell walking the streets. I want him free because there is nothing he did that is incompatible with a pro-abortion ideology," Hatten continues. "I want him to serve as a constant reminder that abortion and infanticide are the same thing, and it was the Supreme Court's idea -- supported by around half of the citizens of this country -- that some doctors are murderers who get to be free citizens."

Read the powerful -- and controversial -- op-ed here.

This article was released as the Gosnell jury continues to deliberate. After the second full day of convening, it seems the jury is most focused on Eileen O'Neill, Gosnell's co-defendant who worked with him at the clinic. O'Neill is accused of practicing without a license and is charged with racketeering and theft by deception for purportedly billing as a doctor, the AP reports. Eight other employees have already pleaded guilty.

There's no word on when the jury will decide on the multitude of charges against Gosnell.

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