Detroit Justifiable Homicides 25x National Average, Murders Lowest in 50 Years

Detroit had 25 times the national average of reported justifiable homicide, but murders in the county are at a 50-year low. While the city’s liberal Democrats are scrambling to explain the disparity, Detroit Police Chief James Craig says the reason is he supports residents’ right to self-defense.

The Detroit News reported, “The county’s report shows there were 289 homicides in Detroit in 2018, although the county lists all homicides, whereas Detroit, like most cities, doesn’t include justifiable homicides in its report because those aren’t crimes.”

But there is the problem – homicides result from criminal activity while justifiable homicides generally do not.

Police Chief Craig has embraced concealed carry since he assumed his position in 2013 and is a strong supporter of armed citizens having the right to self-defense.

Chief Craig attributes the improvement in part to Operation Cease Fire, a partnership between the community and multiple law enforcement agencies that encourages gang members to give up their criminal lifestyle.

But Craig is determined to continue to rid his city of its crime. He said, “While there may be an improvement, I’m not waving a flag of success. Even though there’s no question we’re headed in the right direction, crime is still a problem, so we’re not patting ourselves on the back.”

Unwilling to accept that Detroit citizen’s increase in concealed carry firearms has aided in the decrease in homicides, opponents of gun-rights have resorted to claiming Detroit police had “manipulated the numbers.” Craig responds to the people making such claims that “they don’t know what they’re talking about” and if he ever hears of anyone in the Department doing that he will “immediately move to have them terminated.”

But belief among citizens that things are worse than ever is due in large part to high profile crimes that Craig said, “make things seem worse than they really are.” He said those kinds of crimes alter people’s perception. The Police Chief also believes the mainstream media aggravates the problem. “Also, you’ve got the news that now runs 24 hours, and social media, which also plays into it. When you constantly see stories about crime, it can give the impression there hasn’t been an improvement.”

Dean Weingarten of AmmoLand.com says it is likely that the number for justifiable homicides should be much higher. He points out that convicted felons are much more likely to be involved in a justifiable homicide than an “upright citizen” and be “far more likely to be reluctant to report it to police.”

Weingarten believes the reason the press and gun rights opponents minimize the ratio of murders to justifiable homicides is because they want to further the narrative that self-defense is rare.

Law-abiding gun owners mainly want to prevent injury and loss of property for their family, not to kill offenders. Justifiable homicides most often occur when an assailant makes the choice to refuse to back down. Justifiable homicides make up a tiny percentage of defensive gun uses, “probably less than one-tenth of one percent.”

If the politicians of Detroit would admit that Chief Craig’s pro-concealed carry policies are working and tell the press to print the cold hard facts who knows how many more lives might be saved?