By Dave Workman
Published reports in the final days of 2025 indicated the year was on pace to produce the largest one-year drop in homicides ever recorded, which runs counter to one of the longest-running claims by the gun prohibition lobby, that “more guns would result in more deadly crime.”
ABC News reported the forecast was based on “a sampling of preliminary crime statistics from 550 U.S. law enforcement agencies.”
And Axios noted in its report, “New York City and Memphis recorded nearly a 20% drop in murders compared with 2024, and Chicago saw them fall almost 28%.”
A check of the FBI’s raw National Instant Check System (NICS) data shows more than 2 million background checks per month were initiated during 2025, and after the National Shooting Sports Foundation adjusted those numbers to more closely reflect actual gun transactions, there were still more than a million gun sales with each turn of the calendar.
Back in November, Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, summed up the situation.
“For decades,” he observed at the time, “we have seen one gun control myth after another used as excuses to restrict our Second Amendment rights. Yet here we are, when those rights are being gradually restored thanks to strategic court victories, when 29 states have adopted permitless carry laws, when more people own guns and more people are legally carrying them for personal protection, and the data shows violent crime involving guns is declining. Looks like we’ve been right all along, and the establishment media essentially is confirming it.”
As detailed by the Axios report, “The Real-Time Crime Index, which compiles data from 570 law enforcement agencies, shows a nearly a 20% decline in murders this year compared with the same period in 2024.”
The Crime Prevention Research Center notes in its annual report on concealed carry, “The total now sits at 20.88million, representing a 2.7% drop from last year. A major factor behind this ongoing decrease is the widespread adoption of Constitutional Carry laws.”
Nationally, the report notes, “7.8% of American adults have permits. Outside of the restrictive states of California and New York, about 9.3% of adults have a permit.”
All of these factors combined strongly suggest the gun control lobby has been shooting blanks with its gloomy predictions of higher body counts with more guns in the hands of private citizens.
Workman is editor-in-chief at TheGunMag.com
