The long standing debate over guns in the minds of many people has to do with safety (It’s really not about safety. It’s about whether the government should be able to disarm the populace.).
But nearly everyone who thinks about firearms thinks about gun safety (the exception to that rule being criminals who don’t obey laws, including gun laws, anyway). We all want people to be safer. We all want less deaths.
The disagreement on that issue comes back to what is the best way to decrease accidental and criminal deaths. One side says that banning guns is the way to save lives (even though criminals don’t follow gun laws). The other side says that more guns saves lives because it allows people to defend themselves against criminals.
The truth? Well, it’s actually pretty clear cut (hat tip to here for the lead). Mark Chesnut writes,
As [Citizens Committee to Keep and Bear Arms] leaders recently pointed out, news outlets in Seattle have been reporting on a decline in gun-related violence this year in surrounding King County. But what the reports are omitting is the fact that the declining crime has occurred at the same time as active concealed pistol licenses (CPLs) have increased in the county!
In response to the reports, CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb noted the irony of these declining crime reports when balanced against the rise in gun ownership and concealed carry, not just locally, but throughout the country.
“For decades, we have seen one gun control myth after another used as excuses to restrict our Second Amendment rights,” Gottlieb said in a news release detailing the situation. “Yet here we are, when those rights are being gradually restored thanks to strategic court victories, when 29 states have adopted ‘permitless’ carry laws, when more people own guns and more people are legally carrying them for personal protection, and the data shows violent crime involving guns is declining. Looks like we’ve been right all along, and the establishment media essentially is confirming it.”
That’s the truth of the matter. Anti-2A zealots can try to manipulate and massage data (by leaving out key data or by giving misleading context) to “support” their pushes to disarm you and me, but the facts are the facts, and the facts are that having more legal gun owners decreases gun violence.
It’s just that simple.
