Article Originally Posted on BearingArms.com
Sourced from: https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2023/02/02/ca-gun-control-2-n66892
Look, we can skirt around the issues all we want, but the truth is that California’s gun control laws failed to prevent two high-profile mass shootings within days of one another. The two cases were different in many ways, which means it wasn’t a single point of failure, either, but suggestive of a more systemic issue there in the state.
Yet we’re being gaslighted in an effort to get us to believe that those gun control laws didn’t fail, it was really just the lack of gun control that was the problem.
In the state with over 100 gun control laws on the books.
Sure.
Now, the media seems to be trying to trip over themselves to defend the state’s anti-gun regulations.
As in many previous instances, the two shootings sparked calls for tougher gun laws, both at the state and at the federal level. But some nevertheless question whether such laws could have prevented the recent tragedies and whether they can prevent more violence from happening.
Recent polling shows that most Americans now feel it is time for a change in gun policy. The majority of adults in the U.S. want to see stricter gun laws and believe gun violence is increasing nationwide, according to a poll released in August 2022. The study, conducted by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that “three-fourths of Americans view gun violence as a major problem, and 8 in 10 say gun violence is on the rise in the United States.”
The survey fielded results from 1,373 adults aged 18 and over, representing the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Now, this is just starting to set the groundwork by presenting the claim that most Americans want gun control. However, I’ll also point out that saying gun violence is a problem and is on the rise doesn’t not correlate to those same people believing gun control is the answer. After all, I’d answer yes to both of those and think gun control is a terrible solution.
Anyway, moving on…
And yet, while mass shootings tend to be committed by relatively young men, the suspects in the recent shootings in California were men in their 60s and 70s.
“The federal law was focused in part on 18- to 20-year-olds, among other provisions. But the changes were incremental, so it is no surprise that they would not correlate with a measurable visible drop in gun crime,” Dr. Bob Spitzer, a professor and author of six books on gun control, including “The Gun Dilemma,” told Yahoo News.
“For example,” he added, “the provision encouraging states to adopt or implement red flag laws is a very narrowly focused provision. Red flag laws, according to several studies, have measurable effects in reducing gun suicides, which is undeniably beneficial. But [their] benefits would not show up in national crime statistics.”
…
California has a gun homicide rate of 3.9 deaths per 100,000 people, meaning it has the 29th highest rate of gun homicide deaths in the U.S, according to data compiled by Everytown for Gun Safety and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The national rate is 5.1 per 100,000 people.
The data also shows that the state has managed to curb another common firearm issue: suicides. The gun suicide rate decreased by 11%, while gun homicides increased 31% from 2011 to 2020. Nationally, the figures were respectively a 12% increase for suicides and a 70% increase for gun homicides.
“Mass shootings receive a great deal of attention, for understandable reasons,” Spitzer said, “but it is important to remember that they represent about 1% of gun murders annually.”
Now, understand that here, Spitzer is correct. They’re really just a tiny fraction of what happens with regard to violent crime here in the US and worldwide. They just get a lot of headlines.
However, I’m also going to point out that the correlation between tons of gun control and low homicide and suicide rates aren’t as clear-cut as the author of this piece might assume.
For example, he fails to point out that the median income in California is pretty high, as is the educational level of the average Californian. For example, they’re 29th in gun violence and 20th in education, according to US News & World Report. They’re fifth in median household income as well.
Both of these factors are well known to have an impact on crime as a whole. Yet why mention these when trying to sell California’s gun control as the only potential reason they don’t have more crime?
In fact, looking at these metrics, it’s actually sad that their gun death rate is that high. They have every advantage in trying to prevent these kinds of things, and yet, here we are.
The truth is, though, no one in the mainstream media is interested in digging any deeper.
They won’t want to acknowledge what is plain for everyone to see. Gun control doesn’t work and the shootings in California are ample evidence that they don’t.
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