WASHINGTON — In some ways, the most striking thing about the shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is the fact that the accused gunman is an octogenarian. The elderly are the least violent people in American society, federal crime statistics show.
The FBI listed 17,040 homicides in 2007, the most recent year for which complete statistics were available. Of those, people 65 and older committed 156, or just under 1 percent. Teenagers ages 13 to 16 committed more than triple that amount. The only age group that committed fewer homicides than the elderly were children 12 and younger.
James Wenneker von Brunn, the 88-year-old man who allegedly shot and killed guard Stephen Johns on Wednesday at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in the nation’s capital, is the oldest homicide defendant in recent memory in the District of Columbia, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Stereotypes about grumpy old men aside, the statistics show that men — and women, who commit about 10 percent of all homicides — become less violent for every year they live after age 25.
The suspect
