by Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
(The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project wouldn’t be possible without you. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.)
Times are tough for Michael Bloomberg’s well-paid propagandists at Everytown for Gun Safety. They rant and rave about the evils of gun ownership but no one is listening. More than five million people recently ignored their palaver and purchased their first firearm – including a large percentage of women and African Americans. Most Americans, this shows, have tuned the Everytowners completely out.
Historically, when anti-gun activists feel slighted or ignored, they regroup, pivot and push out some other form of propaganda, hoping to break back into the 24-hour news cycle. Today is no exception. Bloomberg’s crew has already started pushing a new study from a handful of British academics, who claim that Stand Your Ground laws “are associated with an 8% to 11% national increase in homicide rates.”
Note that the Oxford professors could only claim that the Stand Your Ground laws “are associated with” the increasing homicide rates. If they could have determined the laws actually caused the increase, they would have specifically mentioned that in their report. Regardless, for the Everytowners that was more than enough proof. Besides, the want to ignore what’s really causing the increasing number of killings.
“In states with Shoot First laws, overall homicide rates have increased and these deadly laws have done nothing to deter crime. On the flip side, states without Shoot First laws have seen a decrease in homicides,” they tweeted Wednesday.
In states with Shoot First laws, overall homicide rates have increased and these deadly laws have done nothing to deter crime. On the flip side, states without Shoot First laws have seen a decrease in homicides.
— Everytown (@Everytown) February 22, 2022
Stand Your Ground laws are racist, Bloomberg’s activists claim. They’re still trying to pin the law on the Trayvon Martin shooting, even though the shooter, George Zimmerman, never invoked a Stand-Your-Ground defense.
“Twenty-nine states currently have some version of these dangerous Shoot First laws on the books. The good news: We’re fighting to #EndShootFirst,” the group tweeted.
Twenty-nine states currently have some version of these dangerous Shoot First laws on the books. The good news: We’re fighting to #EndShootFirst.
Learn more about these dangerous laws: https://t.co/zyLTFiKSY2
— Everytown (@Everytown) February 22, 2022
The real cause
If the Everytowners, Demanding Moms and the youngsters at the Trace ever bothered to pick up a newspaper or watch something other than CNN or MSLSD, they would quickly learn the real cause of the skyrocketing homicide rates, which are plaguing all of the major cities around the country controlled by Democratic administrations. Progressive prosecutors are to blame for the out-of-control violent crime, not Stand Your Ground laws or anything else. It’s fairly obvious, or at least is should be.
District Attorneys in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and other large cities operate more as social justice warriors than prosecutors. Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr first pointed this out in 2019. Barr added that these “reformers” who “spend their time undercutting the police, letting criminals off the hook and refusing to enforce the law, are demoralizing to law enforcement and dangerous to public safety.”
In the three years since Barr’s pronouncement, things have only gotten worse. In fact, the voters are so upset by the prosecutors’ soft-on-crime shenanigans. they’re seeking to recall Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón and Chesa Boudin, his colleague in San Francisco and possibly more, since there is a terrible trickledown effect once these alleged public servants stopped putting bad guys behind bars.
When the police realized that the suspects would likely be out the jailhouse door before they’ve even finishing writing their arrest reports, their enforcement efforts quickly subsided. Consequently, once the bad guys realized the cops and prosecutors had stopped doing their jobs, utter mayhem ensued – a free-for-all of robberies and shootings that has impacted thousands of people. This is the situation residents of every large metro face today. The Stand Your Ground laws have nothing to do with this lawlessness and chaos.
The law
There has never been a more misunderstood law than Stand Your Ground. It’s actually a very simple statute, which the gun-ban industry cannot ever seem to grasp. All the law did was remove a citizen’s “duty to retreat” when they’re faced with deadly force. Before the law, a citizen had a duty to retreat when they were confronted by an armed assailant. They had to run away hoping they would not get shot in the back. Stand Your Ground legislation removed this run-away requirement. Now, deadly force can be met with deadly force. It is not a “shoot first” law as Everytown would have us believe – far from it. Neither is it a “license to kill.” To be clear, Stand Your Ground is a legal defense. It has about as much to do with increasing crime rates as any other legal defense.
If Everytown and Michael Bloomberg’s other Astroturf (not grassroots) groups need something to demonize for fundraising purposes, perhaps they should look at the soft-on-crime prosecutors. They could each use a heady dose of demonization before even more lives are lost on their watch.
The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project wouldn’t be possible without you. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.
