Miami Mayor Torches Gun Control Arguments Using City's Crime Stats

When I was growing up in the 1980s, the city of Miami was synonymous with cocaine cowboys and gang warfare. Shows like Miami Vice had something to do with that, of course, but Miami was an undeniably violent place back then. 

In 1980, Miami had 220 homicides; a murder rate of more than 60 per 100,000 residents. Keep in mind this was almost a decade before Florida adopted "shall issue" concealed carry, and more than 40 years before permitless carry became the law of the land in the Sunshine State. 

There are likely far more legal gun owners in the city than there was back in 1980, but one thing certain: Miami is a much safer place than it was back then. As Mayor Francis Suarez recently highlighted on the Rubin Report, Miami is on pace for the fewest homicides in more than 70 years. In 2024, the city saw 27 murders. This year the count stands at 23; an almost 90% decline from the peak number of homicides, and its all happened while Florida has made the right to keep and bear arms far more accessible to its citizens. 

"Everybody in Miami has guns and we have the lowest homicide rate" he told host Dave Rubin. "So is it a gun thing, or is it a social policy thing?" 

When Florida adopted "shall issue" concealed carry in the late 1980s, critics predicted blood in the streets and Wild West shootouts in parking lots. Things were bad enough with criminals carrying guns, they said. Just imagine how much worse it will be with Joe Schmoe packing heat. 

In all fairness, violent crime (including homicides) didn't really decline all that much until the early 1990s, but "shall issue" concealed carry didn't lead to more violent crime either. And ten years after Florida adopted it's shall-issue law, the state's homicide rate had fallen from 11.4 to 6.9 per 100,000 people. That decline has continued ever since, and in 2024 the state's homicide rate was estimated at 6.5 per 100,000. By then the state not only had millions of concealed carry licensees, but countless other Floridians carrying without the need for a government-issued permission slip thanks to the permitless carry law adopted in 2023. 

If more guns equals more crime, then Miami in 2025 would make the Miami of the 1980s look like Mayberry, with Crockett and Tubbs serving as the stand-ins for Sheriff Andy Taylor. 

Instead, it's modern day Miami that, guns and all, has one of the lowest homicide rates of any big city in the United States. For that, Suarez credits three things that he says any city and state around the world can do.

"We keep taxes low, we keep people safe, and we lean into innovation."

Anti-gunners claim you can't keep people safe without restrictive gun control laws, but Miami's proved them wrong. Suarez says the city "never got into the defund the police nonsense, we never got into the 'no cash bail' nonsense, we're a city of laws, we're a community that respects law and order, and because of that we have one of the lowest homicide rates in [our] history."

Miami, Florida and Oakland, California have roughly the same population (around 450,000 people). Last year Miami had 27 homicides. Oakland had 86, and that was down substantially from the year before, when the city recorded 126 (Miami, on the other hand, had 31). 

In Miami, so long as you can lawfully own a gun you can carry it. In Oakland, it costs you $1,088 to apply for a permit: $400 when you submit your application, another $400 for the mandatory psychological evaluation, and an additional $288 when you pick up your permit. 

In Miami, you can own an AR-15. In Oakland, you can't. In Miami, you can purchase ammunition without a background check. In Oakland, you can't. In Miami, you can purchase a 17-round magazine for your Glock. In Oakland, you can't... and soon, you might not be able to purchase a Glock either. Yes, Miami (and the rest of Florida) has a three-day waiting period on gun sales, but Oakland (and California) have a 10-day waiting period.

If more guns equals more crime, Oakland would be one of the safest big cities in the country and Miami would be far down the list. Instead, as Suarez says, some of the most violent cities in the country are in places with some of the most restrictive gun laws in place. We don't need gun control to reduce violent crime, but we do need our right to keep and bear arms so we can protect ourselves against the violent predators who are willing to ignore all kinds of laws in order to carry out their crimes.