Greg F--sorry to be so long in responding. I checked your link, and it led to a page filled with other links rather than the information that you were referring to.

I did a search of my own, and found this article, from the New York Times,Homicide Record for 1911 , which said that the homicide rate was higher than at any time in America's past, and gave it as 7.2 per 100k.

To further clarify my original statement, which I stand by, is that the homicide rate jumped after 1960, when it was 5.1 per 100k, to 10.2 per 100k in 1980. US Crime Statistics 1960-2010

The Gun Control Act of 1968 was a reaction to an increase in gun related homicides, as embodied in the assassinations, which most of us remember. If you care to look at the numbers, you will note that it didn't seem to have done much good.

Current and recent statistics on homicides, firearms related and other, can be accessed here. CDC Injury and Death Statistics and you can break them our in lots of different ways.

If you do, you will discover that though the current number of firearms related deaths is about 30k, the number of homicides is about 11k. The other 19k are suicides, which, to be fair, cannot be considered random shootings by wacked out guys with guns.

Another fact that you can find, if you want to, is that about 5,500 of those homicides involve an identifiable demographic group that comprises only about 5% of the population. I am not going to mention which one, because, frail soul that I am, I don't want to be called any more names.