We have some terrible news for the Gun Control Industry™. The CDC — yes, the same CDC that desperately wanted more taxpayer dollars for more “gun violence research” — is reporting that firearm-related homicides fell in 2022. If you’re a regular reader, you know that 2022 was smack-dab in the very fattest part of the now 50-month gun-buying binge the American public embarked on during the pandemic and the George Floyd Summer of Love.
But wait, you say. How can that possibly be true? We’ve been told by all of the smartest people that more guns mean more dead people. That having a gun in the home means it’s far more likely to shoot you than you are to use it against a criminal. How could the number of dead bodies possibly have dropped?
Well, gun-grabbers, read ’em and weep . . .
Provisional CDC data from 2022 saw 5.9 deaths per 100,000 people, about a 6% decrease from 2021. However, last year’s numbers are still substantially higher than the 2019 rate of 4.4 deaths per 100,000.
Oh. My. God. That’s absolutely devastating news for our friends in the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex. It’s so bad, in fact, that the White House is trying to take credit for it.
NEW: The CDC has released a report showing that the gun homicide rate went down in 2022.
This is an encouraging sign that @POTUS’ actions to address gun violence are helping save lives.
But, it’s not nearly enough at a time when guns are the leading killer of children.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 20, 2023
Hold on. Sorry. We had to stop laughing that that deft bit of political framework. OK, we’re good now.
The paid anti-gun droogs at Michael Bloomberg’s The Trace framed it this way . . .
The poor dears. Bless their hearts.
Virtually every corporate media report stressed (though gritted teeth) that while yes, the gun homicide rate fell in 2022, BUT IT’S STILL MORE THAN IT WAS IN 2019! You know, before the pandemic. Before the Summer of Love. Before the ascent of “progressive” prosecutors, decarceration policies, and the passage of zero bail laws.
Just think how much more the rate might have fallen if we’d had 2019-style policies and politics in place in 2022.
According to our friends at NSSF, Americans bough (at least) 16.5 million guns in 2022 according to their adjusted background check data. We say at least because there are more than 20 states where people with carry permits don’t have to undergo a background check. So it’s safe to say that more Americans own more guns than ever before.
In other words…more guns, less crime.
It’s not like we haven’t seen that before. From 1994 to 2019, homicides and violent crime in general fell to historic lows in the U.S. That happened at the very same time the number of civilian-owned firearms doubled. If that didn’t do some statistical violence to the narrative that more guns means more crime and more dead bodies, nothing will.
But it didn’t. And that’s because the anti-gun left and their cheerleaders in the press can’t allow it. There’s far too much money to be made in the “gun safety” advocacy business.
So you won’t hear much cheering from the fourth estate about last year’s drop in homicides. Because that might allow you to think — for a moment anyway — that maybe, just maybe guns aren’t really the problem the anti-gun left has been telling you they are.