Murder Rate Down in 2004

Murder down? It hit the low point in 1999 and has been increasing by small amounts since then.

I bet that it was those assault weapons. Oh, wait, the law only recently sunset.

What could it be then? Looks like the economy getting better may have something to do with it. I wonder if there are any decent papers in the USA about this. I haven't been able to find anything searching the web that has been good reading. Most papers have been from the UK or Australia.

Funny though how many papers you can find that tie guns to crime rate.

Update:
Whoops. This one slapped me in the face just after posting.