Murder Dying Down

Frank J at IMAO has this humorous look at the latest violent crime statistics report:

Murder is at a forty year low, the lowest since the 60's - you know, the decade of love that led to surge in violent crime.

Well, this is a good thing. I think the credit goes to all the people out there who didn't murder... or didn't murder as many people as they originally planned. To all those people who decided to punch the person they hate instead of strangling him, to all those who decided on marital counseling instead of murdering his or her spouse for the insurance money, to all those who decided on stamp collecting instead of serial killing - this achievement belongs to you. As for me, last year ranks among my top years of not killing people.

...[T]he low murder rate could mean one of two things: we've gotten less violent, or we've gotten dumber

The FOX News report that Frank links to has some interesting statistics, including this little comment that caught my attention:

The South — with 36 percent of the nation's population but 43 percent of its murders — saw larger murder declines than any other region. The Southern regional murder rate declined 5 percent to 6.6 per 100,000.

Blumstein said that might have been driven by declines in Atlanta; Memphis, Tenn., and New Orleans, each with over 100 murders in 2003, or "it might mean the South is becoming more like the rest of the country."

So we're becoming more like a bunch of civilized Yankees? Heaven forbid! That's worth killing over!*

* For the terminally clueless, I'm being facetious.