Chad’s Morning Brief: Gun Violence Down, Benghazi Hearings Today, & More
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of May 8, 2013. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am.
1. Gun Deaths (link)
Democrats and the White House will absolutely hate this news. Two new reports show that while the American public believes gun deaths to be on the increase, they are actually down since the 90's.
A study released Tuesday by the government's Bureau of Justice Statistics found that gun-related homicides dropped from 18,253 in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011. That's a 39 percent reduction.
Another report by the private Pew Research Center found a similar decline by looking at the rate of gun homicides, which compares the number of killings to the size of the country's population. It found that the number of gun homicides per 100,000 people fell from 7 in 1993 to 3.6 in 2010, a drop of 49 percent.
Both reports also found the rate of non-fatal crimes involving guns was also down by around 70 percent over that period.
But perhaps because of the intense publicity generated by recent mass shootings such as the December massacre of 20 school children and six educators in Newtown, Conn., the public seems to have largely not noticed the reductions in gun violence, the Pew study shows.
The non-partisan group said a poll it conducted in March showed that 56 percent of people believe the number of gun crimes is higher than it was two decades ago. Only 12 percent said they think the number of gun crimes is lower, while the rest said they think it remained the same or didn't know.
The trend in firearm-related homicides is part of a broad nationwide decline in violent crime over past two decades, including incidents not involving firearms.
But handguns play a major role in violent crime. The Justice study said that in 2011, about 70 percent of all homicides were committed with a firearm, mainly a handgun.
Facts. Democrats and anti-gun nuts hate them.
2. Benghazi (link)
Could Benghazi bring down the Obama administration? Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton seems to think so.
The Benghazi scandal could be the final “hinge point” that brings down the Obama administration, former U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton said.
“This could be the hinge point,” he said to Newsmax. “It’s that serious for them.”
Mr. Bolton is now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
His comments came as Congress is readying to hear testimony from several witnesses about the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Witness Greg Hicks already has stated publicly that the administration was aware that the attack was terrorist in nature, and not related to protests of a YouTube film about Muslims, as originally stated.
Mr. Bolton said these witnesses’ testimonies could prove explosive.
“The three witnesses who have been identified are not bystanders,” he said in the Newsmax report. “These are not people who are going to report on hearsay of what somebody in Tripoli told somebody that they heard from. These are people who are directly involved in different capacities before, during and after the attack.”
Committee staffers have hinted that the witnesses’ statements are going to prove “devastating,” especially for then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. And “you’ve already seen some Democratic members of Congress … beginning to run from this,” Mr. Bolton said in the Newsmax report.
I don't know if it will bring down the administration, but what is said today could bring down Hillary Clinton.
3. Cruz Rising (link)
Could Ted Cruz influence the Governor's race here in Texas? It's possible since the Senator is a rising star and Governor Perry still doesn't play well nationally. According to a tweet from Public Policy Polling, Governor Perry is consistently at 1-2% in their 2016 poll. Because of that, PPP has decided to replace Perry with Ted Cruz.
Sure, they could both decide to run in 2016 but let's be serious about right now. Cruz is rising and the Governor is flat. America loves a rising star and with the spotlight being on Cruz, Perry might just decide to stay in Austin a while longer.
Other Top Stories:
These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.
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