Anti-Gun Politicians Lie About Violent Crime Because Telling the Truth Is Politically Costly

By Rob Morse

Last month, a man murdered his three daughters, ages 9, 10 and 13 in Sacramento, California. He also murdered the court-ordered chaperone who was supervising their visit. The murderer then shot himself. He used a modern rifle.

Democrat Governor Gavin Newsome called it, “Another senseless act of gun violence in America – In a church with kids inside – Our hearts go out to the victims, their families and their communities.”

Democrat State Attorney General Robert Bonta said, “We need to enforce more of the laws that we have. The rise in violent crime throughout the country is almost entirely because of guns.”

Of course they said that. They have to blame “the gun” because to speak the truth about what happened would offend of too many of the Democrats’ special interests. Here is some of what these Democrat officials couldn’t say out loud.

• Democrat politicians couldn’t tell us the murderer was an illegal immigrant who overstayed his visa five years ago.
• They couldn’t tell us that the murderer had an active restraining order that made him a prohibited possessor, and his possession of a firearm illegal. They left out that in legal documents the murderer swore he didn’t have any firearms.
• They didn’t tell us that the murderer’s ex-girlfriend said he had mental health issues and had threatened her with violence and threatened to take his own life.
• Democrats politicians didn’t tell us that the murderer was under a detainer request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement so that he could be deported.
• They can’t say that the murderer was arrested and in police custody only five days ago for driving under the influence, resisting arrest, and assaulting police and medical staff who tried to help him.
• Democrat politicians have to ignore that 85 percent of violent crimes don’t involve a firearm.

Democrats can’t speak these truths because those admissions would upset the special interests that keep these politicians in power. They can’t say that some illegal immigrants are a danger to all of us. They can’t say that California routinely releases dangerous criminals back on the street because their political decisions have made it too expensive to incarcerate dangerous prisoners or provide mental health treatment in California. They can’t admit that gun-control laws don’t protect us because suicidal murderers won’t obey our laws.

It was more politically expedient to blame the gun than to blame their failed political polices, and too bad if it cost the lives of four innocent people. Those innocent lives were merely the incidental cost that Democrat politicians were willing to pay to remain in office.

If you think this is an isolated event and that these are isolated lies, then you should keep reading because it happened again after another high profile Sacramento shooting. 

That was when gang members with long criminal records had a shootout only a few miles away from the church shooting. Six were killed in the shootout.

Once again, Democrat President Joe Biden called for tougher gun laws to stop mass murder on our streets. So did Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein.

What they didn’t say is that violent gang members were released from jail early, got their hands on illegal guns, and then shot at other gang members on a public street.

They can’t say that because that would mean admitting that the California economy is hurting, California’s judicial system is broken and underfunded, and that the state’s gun and drug prohibitions don’t work. It was politically easier to blame — yet again — guns for what happened.

Here’s another layer of truth below the surface — Democrat politicians tell us these lies because they work.

We see dozens of people shot by gangs every week in Chicago. And virtually every week the Democrat Mayor of Chicago blames laws in other states for the crimes committed in her city. We are told the same lies for years on end because the voters and the press never hold these politicians accountable for their failures. The politicians know they won’t be held accountable…not in Chicago, not in Sacramento, and not in Washington, D.C.

We the public — the voters — are the ones who have made it politically easier for politicians to lie to us than to tell us the truth. We never hold ourselves accountable for what we’ve let Democrat politicians do election after election. We keep voting for these same people in election after election.

We get the lies we tolerate. We are responsible for the politicians we put in office. The faces in office change every decade or so, but we can’t change the future by putting people with the same old ideas into office.

Too many of us have accepted the lies. It’s easier for us to blame a political scapegoat than to change the way we vote. And it costs innocent lives every day.

This article originally appeared at Slow Facts and is reprinted here with permission.