In a recent email blast, The Trace’s anti-gun agit-propagandists reported that “According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the murder rate in the country’s 30 largest cities increased by 13.3 percent in 2015, compared to the previous year.” BUT, according to the report, “Crime overall in the 30 largest cities in 2015 remained the same as in 2014, decreasing by 0.1 percent. Two-thirds of cities saw drops in crime, which were offset mostly by an increase in Los Angeles (12.7 percent). Nationally, crime remains at all-time lows.” I guess that didn’t fit the narrative. Here’s another example of the civilian disarmament industrial complex cherry picking facts, relying on the sin of omission . . .
“Four months into 2016, the trend is set to continue,” The Trace’s email asserts. “In Chicago, both shootings and homicides are up more than 50 percent compared to this time last year.”
While trying to make the case for gun control, they’re actually making the case against it.
Lest we forget, Chicago is home to some of America’s most Draconian gun control legislation (still). And the other two cities that combine to account for 50 percent of the homicide increase — Baltimore and Washington, D.C. — are also cities where gun rights go to die. Los Angeles? Them too.
The Brennan Report doesn’t connect those dots. It ID’s other factors that may account for this homicide increase locus:
Final data confirm that three cities (Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.) account for more than half (244) of the national increase in murders. While this suggests cause for concern in some cities, murder rates vary widely from year to year, and there is little evidence of a national coming wave in violent crime. These serious increases seem to be localized, rather than part of a national pandemic, suggesting that community conditions remain the major factor. Notably, these three cities all seem to have falling populations, higher poverty rates, and higher unemployment than the national average. This implies that economic deterioration of these cities could be a contributor to murder increases.
Yes, well, they also have Democratic political control in common, and the resulting degradation and elimination of their residents’ gun rights. Correlation does not equal causation but . . . Anyway, thanks to The Trace for the heads-up.