Crime Hit a 70-Year Low. Gun Sales Didn't. - The 2A Weekly
2026-09-01 by Brass Kisses
September 1, 2026 · Sheridan, Wyoming · Brass Kisses
Every week the papers tell you more guns mean more bodies. This week the FBI's own math showed up to the argument, and it did not go the way they promised. Grab your coffee (or your chronograph) - here's your 2A week, loud and sourced.
POSITIVE 2A STORIES - The Receipts Are In
The FBI just published the numbers, and they're beautiful. Per the FBI's newly released 2025 Uniform Crime Reporting data (covered at Bearing Arms, Aug. 28), 2025 delivered the largest year-to-year violent crime decline since the FBI began estimating in 1936: violent crime down 9.3%, murder down 18.1%, robbery down 18.5%. The murder rate - 4.1 per 100,000 - tied the lowest since the mid-1950s. All of this happened while Americans kept buying guns by the million and while 29 states now have constitutional carry. Decades of "blood in the streets" predictions, and the streets went and got safer. We'll wait by the phone for the apologies.
And it's not slowing down: crime analyst Jeff Asher's real-time tracker of the nation's largest police departments shows murder falling again through the first half of 2026, after what he says was likely a record-low murder rate in 2025 (The Reload's weekly newsletter).
And on the ground: in Orange Park, Florida on Aug. 24, a suspect fleeing a stolen-vehicle chase forced his way into an occupied home - and met a homeowner who was done being a bystander. One shot to the leg, suspect in custody, and it turns out he had outstanding warrants for grand theft and armed robbery (NRA's Armed Citizen, Aug. 28, via News4Jax). The Second Amendment isn't a museum piece. It clocks in every single day.
2A WINS
- New Mexico's 7-day waiting period just took one on the chin. On Aug. 28, federal Judge James Browning entered a permanent injunction against enforcing the state's 7-day gun-purchase waiting period - following the Tenth Circuit's holding that it fails the Second Amendment under Bruen (Bearing Arms, Aug. 28). The asterisk: the injunction names only the two plaintiffs, and reports say the state is still applying the wait to everybody else while lawyers argue about scope (Ammoland). A win - with a fight left over how big a win.
- Virginia's rifles are back on the wall. With the state's gun-and-magazine ban frozen by a statewide injunction and the challenge stayed while SCOTUS takes up the bigger question, dealers report ARs and standard-capacity handguns are back on shelves (Bearing Arms, Aug. 26). Confusing? Sure. But confusion with rifles on the shelf beats clarity without them.
2A ISSUES / THREATS
- California's last-day buffet of bad ideas. Heading into the session's final gavel, six bills were still moving: AB 1753 (extends GVROs to ammunition), AB 1974 (a state program to take "voluntary" custody of your guns), AB 2047 (3D printers must ship with "firearm blueprint detection algorithms" - seriously), SB 948 (mandatory 4-hour live-fire course for a safety certificate starting 2028), SB 1220, and AB 1743 (wider access to the state's gun-owner database) (NRA-ILA, Aug. 21). Final outcomes were still landing at press time.
- The ATF's post-NFA silence is now a congressional matter. Three weeks after the Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF injunction gutted NFA registration requirements, the agency still hasn't told dealers or owners how to proceed - so Rep. Tracey Mann (R-KS) sent a letter demanding answers on six points, from Form 4 processing to what's still legally required (Bearing Arms, Aug. 28). Winning in court is step one. Making the paperwork admit it is apparently step two.
2A DEBATES
- "Common use" goes to the big show. With SCOTUS set to hear the AR-15 ban challenges it granted in June - Viramontes v. Cook County and SAF's Connecticut case (SAF, Guns.com) - the op-ed wars over what Heller's "common use" test means are heating up (one round covered at Bearing Arms, Aug. 28). Our two cents: tens of millions of lawfully owned rifles is the definition of common. The Court will have the final word - likely the biggest 2A term in a generation.
- Colorado's 3-day waiting period is in the judge's hands. Judge John Kane heard full arguments Aug. 24 on RMGO's challenge (Colorado Springs Gazette). With New Mexico's wait just going down one state over, the Tenth Circuit's shadow looms large. Ruling pending - we're watching.
BRASS KISSES CORNER
National Shooting Sports Month is a wrap. Thanks to everyone who burned powder with us in August. Now it is Labor Day week, and every round of Brass Kisses ammo is American labor: new brass, new projectiles, new powder and new primers, loaded in the USA. Range day Monday, obviously. We are in discussion with the War Banner Foundation about ways to serve the veteran community together. Find Brass Kisses at a dealer near you on our Where to Buy page.
Kiss My Brass.