over 1.6 million violent crimes were reported in the United States in 1998, including more than 16900 homicides. The key ingredients in the high incidence of street crime appear to be drug use and the widespread presence of firearms. According to the FBI, 19 percent of all reported aggravated assaults, 30 percent of reported robberies, and 65 percent of reported murders involved a fireman. Even with a recent decline in major crime in the United States, current levels exceed the levels experienced in the 1960s (Department of Justice 1999a; Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation 1999).