The Democrats number 2 in the Senate, Dick Durbin, is running with the idea that crime is spiking from the increase in the number of gun sales. This correlation of gun sales and violent crime is real, Durbin is not wrong in pointing it out, but correlation is not causation.
Gun sales are at record highs and contrary to Dick Durbin’s belief that this is what has caused the higher crime rates the reality might be the exact opposite. Many Americans feel they need to arm themselves now more than ever as carjacking and home invasions become more frequent.
From the layman’s perspective, if your neighbor gets his car stolen by a carjacker, maybe buying a gun is what you feel you need to do. Trust in the police is also failing, many Americans feel they need to arm themselves because they do not think the police will do anything or can do anything to save them. I would argue that it is far more likely that people are buying more guns because of crime than that people are buying guns to commit crimes.
As for why crime is rising, look no further than newly elected prosecutors and the 2020 “Summer of Love.” Some of these newly elected prosecutors are very liberal in their views on crime and are willing to let criminals go with little to no time served for serious crimes. The “Summer of Love,” which was full of rioting and violence, scared a lot of Americans and many of them felt that they would also lose their property or even their lives if the violence were to continue.
People are not buying record amounts of guns to commit crimes, they are buying record amounts of guns because they are afraid of the criminals overrunning the country.
