Gee, I thought all those concealed-carry laws were supposed to be keeping us safer:

Americans were robbed and victimized by gun violence at greater rates last year than the year before, even though overall violent and property crime reached a 32-year low, the Justice Department said Sunday...

Last year, there were two violent gun crimes for every 1,000 individuals, compared with 1.4 in 2004, according to the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. There were 2.6 robberies for every 1,000 persons, compared with 2.1 the year before.

"This report tells us more the serious events -- robbery and gun crimes -- increased and the FBI already told us homicides increased," said criminal justice professor James Alan Fox of Northeastern University.

"So while the report shows the more numerous but least serious violence -- simple assaults, which is pushing and shoving -- went down, the mix got worse in terms of severity. That wasn't a very good trade-off," Fox said....

Up from 1.4 per 1,000 to 2.0 per 1,000? Kind of a big increase, no?

Yeah, if I were the Bush administration, I'd want this report out on a weekend when everyone's attention was elsewhere.