Execution Style Murder on the Rise

In November of last year, I wrote an article published in the Youngstown Vindicator entitled "Killing with a firearm becoming more precise."
(http://www.vindy.com/news/2009/nov/08/killing-with-a-firearm-becoming-more-precise/)
I wrote that Baltimore's reduction in homicides was not keeping pace with the reduction in non-fatal shootings. I theorized that today's killers are not just random shooters, they are executioners. Why? Seventy-percent of victims know their killers, killers are using larger caliber guns and wounds are more deadly. I concluded the article with, "(W)hy are non lethal shootings decreasing at a greater rate than homicide. The answer is clear and alarming. Killers know their targets, are better armed and more lethal in their methods."

Last month the Baltimore Sun reported, "A review of the Baltimore Police Department's annual analyses of homicides shows that as murders fell, the number of people shot in the head rose from a small portion of the total killings more than a decade ago to about half last year. Police say those figures, along with anecdotal evidence, indicate an increasing number of close-range, execution-style shootings."

The Sun further reported, "More close-range, targeted shootings could explain why the homicide rate remains stubborn in light of more significant reductions in gun crime. Though both have fluctuated and are down considerably from two years ago, department statistics show that in the past decade, reported shootings fell 38 percent, from 725 in 2000 to 449 in 2009, while homicides dropped by 8.8 percent, from 261 to 238."