"And, no matter what your favorite politician says about gun control or the lack of it, the homicide rate has been near stagnant or falling for 21 consecutive years... The national rate of homicides has greatly decreased over the past 150 years or so, historians say... "The highest murder rate in national history was between 1846 and 1887,â not including Civil War deaths, Roth says... http://articles.washingtonpost.com/...227_1_homicide-rate-randolph-roth-gun-control