KEEP DECREASE IN VIOLENT CRIME IN PERSPECTIVE

The FBI reported last week that violent crimes reported to police dropped by a record 7 percent in 1996 as overall serious crime declined for the fifth years in a row. Led by record declines of 11 percent in murders and 6 percent in aggravated assaults, preliminary FBI figures showed that violent crimes of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault together had the largest one-year decline in the 35 years since the FBI began reporting year-to-year comparisons in 1961.

While welcome news, the numbers should be kept in perspective. Said Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., "Even with these declines, it is still four times more likely that you are going to be raped, robbed assaulted or murdered than it was in 1960."

What isn't to be taken seriously are claims from the Clinton administration that passage of a federal crime bill including gimmickry such as midnight basketball deserve the credit. Everyone knows that fighting violent street crime is primarily a local law enforcement matter. Academics and police chiefs cite other factors in the drop in reported crimes:

-- The huge, postwar baby boom generation's passage from its crime-prone years into middle age.

-- Declines in criminal turf wars as crack cocaine markets matured.

-- Police efforts to disarm criminals and juveniles, including "zero-tolerance" campaigns, originated in New York City, against minor disorder crimes such as playing loud music, aggressive, even menacing panhandling and the like.

One might also look to the spreading passage of concealed weapon laws permitting law-abiding citizens this natural extension of their God-given right of self-defense. A majority of the nation's population in more than 30 states now lives under some version of this law.