Washington, DC, Records Highest Number of Murders Since 1997 Despite Stringent Gun Control
Washington, DC, recorded in 2023 the highest annual number of homicides the city has witnessed since 1997 despite stringent gun control.
According to the Washington Post, 274 people were killed in the city in 2023.
D.C. saw a murder rate of 40 per 100,000 residents, making it “deadlier than 55 of the country’s 60 most populous cities, behind only New Orleans, Cleveland, Baltimore and Memphis.”
Washington, DC, New Orleans, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Memphis are all Democrat-run cities.
The Post noted that D.C.’s surging homicides got the attention of the United States Congress and other federal officials who “questioned whether D.C. leaders were equipped to prevent the District from regressing to the social dysfunction and near municipal collapse of the late 20th century, when the city, overwhelmed by crack-fueled bloodshed, became known as America’s murder capital.”
A mid-December update from the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department made clear that 2023 was going to end with far more homicides than the city witnessed in 2022.
The update showed there were 259 homicides in D.C. from January 1, 2023, to December 15, 2023, versus 194 homicides from January 1, 2022, to December 15, 2022.
Over 90 percent of the homicides committed from January 1, 2023, through December 27, 2023, were firearm-related, although D.C. has some of the most stringent gun controls in the country. Those controls include limits of the number of guns a law-abiding citizen can purchase, firearm registration requirements, universal background checks, a red flag law, a “high capacity” magazine ban, and more.