Help with FBI stats please.......

[Ralph III]

Hello Everyone,
I am working on a College Study being conducted by legal gun owners/enthusiasts and I need help with the following.

1. Can anyone provide National FBI stats for the last 10, 20, or 30 years in regards to violent crime trends? I would prefer something in graph form. It's my understanding and what I have read that violent crime has been on a decline for the last 20 or 30 years. I consider this past year to be an exception or anomaly because of Covid. Anyhow, an actual graph would be most preferred for presentation purposes.

2. Can anyone provide similar stats/graph for the state of Alabama?

I am trying to find these items myself but I cannot find anything which allows an easy comparison as a graph would. Many of you may have the proper sources whereas I am throwing darts in the dark.

Its our goal to promote the benefits of legal gun ownership and the 2nd Amendment, while also coming up with strategies to help reduce violent crime. Legal gun ownership and conceal carry has increased significantly and yet violent crime in general has gone down. This is the trend I am trying to show to counter the negative connotations the anti-gun crowd attempt to espouse.

Thanks,
Ralph

[Scott321]

Sounds like you need to peruse the FBI website. FBI (Uniform Crime Reporting) UCR stats might help. The CIA World Factbook might also have some relevant statistics. What I should say is use Google Sheets or MS Excel to fill in the data from their Tables (sometimes as easy as a cut and paste) and create your own graphs with it. Don't forget to reference where you got the statistics from for every statement of fact and chart/graph.

A quick cheat, would be to Google "FBI crime statistics" or "Alabama crime statistics," and then click on the "Images" tab, and then look for charts. Always verify the source (often as easy as reading the website link for .gov or something similar). Also be aware that by doing this, you are basically trusting someone else's analysis of the data, which can already be significantly biased. It's always better to look at the raw data.

I'll also mention to check if your reference is using a different reference for the information. A good research paper will have 20+ references for statements of facts and data throughout, and if data was taken from another article it's best to use the original data and reference the original article. This can also double your reference count if you use different information for each reference, or even lead to getting multiple references for different data rfom the article you first came across. It also helps you dissect problems with biased theories and analysis when checking an articles references.

Another potential source for info is to contact a local, state pro-2a organization and ask them for literature with statistics to help get you on your way.

[340pd]

Try here,
http://www.gunfacts.info/

He does this research gratis. I send him a $20 from time to time just because.

[Ken L]

Check out "More Guns, Less Crime" by John Lott and Gary Kleck. Individually those two gents are a wealth of information on the subject, and together their book is a great resource.

The FBI information is here FBI — Crime in the U.S. 2019 (https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019) You are able to drill down by incident and by state. It looks like 2019 is the most recent, might have to go year by year to get the data you're looking for.