By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A recent report at The Trace—the Michael Bloomberg-backed pro-gun-control publication—may have burst one of the most important myth bubbles of the gun prohibition lobby when it revealed, “Gun violence is down, significantly, as gun sales are ticking up for the first time in years.”
That single sentence runs counter to anti-gun rhetoric which has been considered gospel by many people, including those in the media, for a generation.
When Daniel Semenza wrote at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in mid-2022, he asserted, “One of the most fundamental facts is this: where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths. This should not be a novel or even interesting observation, but rather a widely accepted matter of fact. Yet, because it is a fact that so many choose to ignore, it must be repeated over and over again…More guns equals more death.”
Back in September 2019, a news release from the Senate Judiciary Committee stated, “Overall, more guns on the streets means more crime.”
The news release quoted the late, virulently anti-gun Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) declaring, “The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to make sure he doesn’t get it in the first place. We should focus on drying up the supply of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and putting in place laws that keep all guns away from dangerous individuals.”
Were she still alive, Feinstein might be furious with the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for its ruling several days ago that the New Jersey ban on semiautomatic rifles and original-capacity magazines is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
And Brady United insisted in a podcast that “More guns equal less crime is perhaps one of he most pervasive myths in the United States.” Yet, here is The Trace reporting that its “gun violence data hub” monitored violent crime involving guns during the first six months of this year and found “Shooting deaths and injuries remain at historic lows in the United States…”
“Data from the Gun Violence Archive shows 6,458 shooting deaths, and 11,781 shooting injuries in the first six months of the year,” The Trace reported. “Both represent the lowest number since 2015.”
Remarkably, The Trace quoted Jeff Asher, co-founder of AH Datalytics and former crime analyst for the City of New Orleans, offering some possible explanations:
- One, it’s happening everywhere, so it’s probably not local factors.
- Two, it happened at a time of decreased police presence. We have fewer officers everywhere.
- Three, it happened at a time when we haven’t solved the root causes of crime. It’s not like we fixed poverty and education. Those are still obviously major issues.
- Four, the country is still awash in guns. Gun sales are still at elevated levels.
- Five, there hasn’t been some major breakthrough in policing efficiency. Clearance rates plunged in 2020. Now they’re rising again, but that probably has more to do with the fact that murder is falling than anything else.
Pay attention to Points #2—it happened at a time of decreased police presence—and #4—the country is still awash in guns.
If the anti-gunners were correct, which apparently they have not been, the country would be “awash in blood” with all of these guns in private hands. But The Trace is reporting otherwise.
This doesn’t square with what writer Semenza wrote at the Rockefeller Institute: “The discussion that follows a mass shooting is always fraught with misinformation and misguided policy recommendations. This confusion stems from an enduring lack of understanding about the basic realities of gun violence. One of the most fundamental facts is this: where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths.”
While gun sales have declined since 2020 at the height of the Covid 19 panic, they are still relatively healthy compared to the numbers before the panic, as noted by SafeHome.org.
The firearms community has not wavered from its contention that increased gun ownership does not result in more gun-related violence. It is only the gun control crowd which now appears to be acknowledging, without actually admitting it, that one of their chief arguments against firearm ownership was wrong.
