The last time violent crime was this bad in the country was the early '90s. Some might point to the ban on assault rifles in '94 as the reason for the drop in crime later that decade. The data shows a negligible drop in mass murders during the life of that bill.

As much as I hate to admit it, the drop then was likely more due to the passing of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act written in part by then senator Joe Biden but had support from both parties. Details from wiki follow:

"The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, commonly referred to as the 1994 Crime Bill,[1] the Clinton Crime Bill,[2] or the Biden Crime Law,[3] is an Act of Congress dealing with crime and law enforcement; it became law in 1994. It is the largest crime bill in the history of the United States and consisted of 356 pages that provided for 100,000 new police officers, $9.7 billion in funding for prisons and $6.1 billion in funding for prevention programs, which were designed with significant input from experienced police officers."

During that decade violent crime incidence dropped from 758/100000 to around 500/100000.

So as you can see, increased funding to the police, prisons, and prevention programs had a profound effect on violent crime. 3 strike legislation was also being passed at the time.

The answer is a concerted effort by the government to police the country effectively with actual repercussions to committing crime. This requires a backbone by all three branches of government and a willingness to not cowtow to the vocal minority who like to complain about an overzealous justice system but provide no other viable solutions.

The answer is not gun control legislation. The stats during the assault gun ban bear this out.

This post was edited on 6/22/22 at 10:39 pm