By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Saturday’s fatal triple shooting at a Jacksonville, Florida Dollar General store has been followed by the almost obligatory media reports concerning gun ownership in the United States, comparison of U.S. gun deaths versus other countries, and public support for more gun control.
Largely missing—although the data is right there—is any perspective relating to the number of firearms in private hands versus the number used in crime, and any mention of existing gun control laws which were violated or did not deter or prevent the crime.
Newsweek reported the suspected gunman—identified as Ryan Christopher Palmeter, 21—“acquired the weapons he used legally.” That is, he evidently passed background checks. He also had “no prior criminal record.” After gunning down three black people, he killed himself.
The FBI is reportedly investigating the incident as a hate crime, because the killer left more than one manifesto in which he reportedly used a racial slur, and because he had painted a swastika on the receiver of his semi-auto rifle. He also carried a handgun.
According to Yahoo News—quoting the Gun Violence Archive—said there have been “more than 470 mass shootings” so far this year in the U.S. However, buried in the Yahoo report was this acknowledgement: “While mass shootings and gun murders (homicides) generally garner much media attention, more than half of the total in 2021 were suicides.”
The Yahoo story also noted that gun ownership spiked by about 7.5 million between January 2019 and April 2021, the duration of the COVID-19 “pandemic panic.” As a result, an estimated 11 million people were “exposed” to having firearms in their homes, including an estimated 5 million children.
One other thing Yahoo reported is significant: “About half of new gun owners in that time period were women, while 40% were either black or Hispanic.”
Yet, left unsaid is the fact that with all of those new guns in circulation among first-time gun owners, there has not been a national bloodbath, which invariably seems to be the prediction from the gun control lobby about the aftermath of any new law expanding gun rights, such as permitless carry.
By some estimates, there are at least 390 million firearms in private ownership in the U.S., which was the number suggested back in 2018, so there are definitely more guns in circulation now. Yet, with all of that hardware in private possession, Yahoo’s story revealed, “48,830 people died from gun-related injuries in the US during 2021, according to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” This represents a tiny fraction of all privately-owned guns, an increasing number of which are owned for personal protection rather than hunting or competition.
