A bombshell report that will likely be ignored by establishment media—with the exception of Fox News, which revealed the report—says available FBI data shows “in states with higher percentages of households with at least one gun, crimes are not higher than in states with strict gun laws.”
In an interview with Fox News Digital, George Mason University Professor Emerita Joyce Lee Malcolm stated, “Gun ownership is higher in states with fewer restrictions, and homicide rates in these states are lower. People can protect themselves.”
Malcolm is the author of “Guns and Violence-the English Experience” and “To Keep and Bear Arms-The origin of an Anglo-American Right.” She has appeared at the annual Gun Rights Policy Conference, sponsored by the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
According to Fox News, “The data show that many states with higher percentages of gun ownership had lower or similar murder and gun murder rates to states with strict gun control. Montana and Wyoming came in the top spots for states with the highest percentages of gun ownership, with more than 66% of households with at least one firearm. However, the states also saw murder and gun murder rates similar to states with strict gun laws.”
A few lines later, Fox News added, “In California, where just over 28% of households had at least one gun in 2016, there was a rate of more than four people murdered per 100,000 population and nearly three gun murders per 100,000 population in 2019. While in Maryland, where about 30% of households owned at least one firearm, according to 2016 data, murders per 100,000 population jumped to roughly nine, while more than seven people per 100,000 were victims of gun murders.”
The report tends to pour cold water on claims by the gun prohibition lobby that states with higher gun ownership and higher percentages of concealed carry permits and licenses have higher rates of gun-related homicide.
Charts used to illustrate the Fox story show Maryland—where it is nearly impossible to get a carry permit—had a much higher rate of gun-related homicides in 2019 than Washington state. In 2019, the number of active concealed pistol licenses climbed from 608,460 in January to 646,344 by Dec. 31, a spike of 37,884 active CPLs in Washington. Maryland has a smaller population than the Evergreen State as well, yet more people were murdered with guns, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report for that year. Maryland posted 551 murders including 460 involving guns while Washington reported 194 slayings, including 135 committed with firearms. This is just one example.
In a related report, Fox notes “many experts blame the fallout from the pandemic and 2020’s summer of protests and riots following the death of George Floyd” for the spike in violent crime that year. The New York Times “recently argued that 2020’s skyrocketing increase in legal gun purchases has also contributed to the spikes.”
However, the data, and common sense, do not support that assertion. Fox News spoke with Charles Stimson at the Heritage Foundation, who noted, “For the last 27, 29 years, our country has had a dramatic decrease in violent crime. Violent crime peaked in 1992-93, and it has been on the wane ever since then — until recently.
“That and that alone rebuts [The New York Times’] argument that increased legal gun ownership has contributed to this spike in crime,” Stimson continued. “What, they didn’t do it for 30 years? Even though they bought tens of millions of guns between 92 and now.”
Now, in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling striking down New York State’s “good cause” requirement to get a carry permit, thus affirming the right to bear arms extends beyond one’s front door, the gun prohibition lobby is busy spreading hysteria.
In an email fund raising blast, Brady United claims, “In a post Bruen nation, anyone can carry a loaded, hidden handgun virtually anywhere, putting more Americans at risk of gun violence than ever before.”
That is false. The ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen did not nullify state concealed carry licensing requirements, nor did it eliminate restrictions on carrying in so-called “sensitive areas.” It also did not erase prohibitions against gun possession by convicted felons.
Besides, criminals have been illegally carrying guns despite the law prior to the Bruen ruling. The Brady group appears more alarmed that law-abiding citizens can now qualify for carry licenses without having to prove they have a “special need.”
Perhaps Fox News put the postscript on the story by quoting Amy Swearer from the Heritage Foundation.
“Experts who previously spoke to Fox News Digital squashed claims that the increase in legal gun sales has contributed to crime in 2022,” the report said
“The short answer is that there is absolutely no statistical evidence to that effect showing some causal relationship” between the increase in gun purchases and increase in violent crimes, Swearer said in April.
