Along with the recent release of preliminary data from the FBI’s 2006 Uniform Crime Report came confirmation of what many observers had been expecting even before the preliminary data was made available: violent crime is on the rise across America.

Among the findings in the report:

• Violent crime nationwide increased for the second consecutive year
• Nationwide, there was an increase of 1.3 percent in violent crime
• At the same time, property crime decreased by 2.9 percent
• Robbery increased by 6 percent
• Cities with a population of 25,000 to 49,999 saw the same rise in violent crime as cities with a population of 250,000 to 499,999.

These findings mirror stories that had already been circulating, describing increased incidences of violence. Early last year, the New York Times reported on the rise of fatal incidents stemming from seemingly minor altercations:

“And while such crime in the 1990’s was characterized by battles over gangs and drug turf, the police say the current rise in homicides has been set off by something more bewildering: petty disputes that hardly seem the stuff of fistfights, much less gunfire or stabbings.�

Regardless of the cause of these clashes, it is clear that “trivial� fights are turning deadly more often now than they had in the past. In this kind of environment, one wonders why some suggest that more guns will reduce the number of people shot to death in petty disputes. We’ve tried that for many years now, and we once again see that adding more guns to the mix does not result in less violence.

But it’s not just big cities seeing a surge in violent crime. The spread of gangs, and cuts to law enforcement funding, have left smaller cities seeing a rise in their homicide rates as well. A report this January in the New York Times points out that:

“Among the 15 other cities with 100,000 or more people in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, 10 had increases in violent crime, including 4 in the double digits. And in those 15 cities, taken together, the number of homicides rose by 28 percent.�

Adding more guns has not solved the problem. It’s time for real solutions, not just more blind attempts to justify past failures by repeating the same mistakes over and over. We make it too easy for dangerous people to get weapons.