If the past 12 months have taught us anything as a nation, it would have to be that gun control has actually failed in its purported mission of preventing criminals from getting guns, and that proponents of restrictive gun laws are both delusional and living in denial when they claim otherwise.
Remember, the gun prohibition lobby is typically silent when a legally armed private citizen intervenes in a crime to stop the criminal.
While the number of homicides decreased in 2023 by more than 11 percent, according to the most recently available data estimates from the FBI, the use of firearms in those killings remains high.
The Christmas Eve triple shooting in Oxford, Mich.—scene of the tragic high school shooting in November 2021 which resulted in several new gun restrictions—confirms what gun rights advocates such as Alan Gottlieb at the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have been trying to explain for years, if not decades: Criminals do not obey gun control laws, and existing laws restricting adults do not prevent juveniles from getting and/or using guns illegally.
The Detroit Free Press, reporting about the Oxford shooting, which has turned into a homicide, said the incident happened “a short distance from Oxford High School.” The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office has a suspect in custody and a gun has been recovered.
The October slaughter of a family near Fall City, Washington, allegedly by a 15-year-old family member shocked the upscale Lake Alice neighborhood. The teen has been charged with five counts of homicide, and the case will continue into 2025.
Yet Washington state, over the past few years, has seen the adoption of several new gun control laws requiring “expanded” background checks, a 10-day waiting period and proof of firearm safety training, and other restrictions on adult gun buyers.
Back on Jan. 9, USA Today outlined gun control laws which took effect earlier this year in California, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington and other Democrat-controlled states. Have any of those laws prevented homicides in any of those states?
While the USA Today story noted Everytown for Gun Safety’s report on states with the strongest gun laws—California, New York, Illinois, Connecticut, and Hawaii—a triple homicide in Mahomet, Illinois, just before Christmas has left that community rattled. WCIA News is reporting the suspect, identified as John R. Lyons, was shot dead in a gunfight with police in nearby Berwyn, a Cook County suburb.
There is no small irony in the fact that WCIA identified Everytown as a “gun violence prevention advocacy group.”
According to the popular website Heyjackass.com, so far this year, Chicago has seen 606 homicides, of which 536 involved firearms. Another 2,414 people have been wounded by gunfire.
California’s strict gun laws, touted by Everytown in the USA Today report, haven’t stopped homicides in the Golden State. One look at Sacramento’s bloody past few months—just Google “Sacramento homicides”—tells the tale of the state’s capital city, and that’s just one city.
Despite a 14 percent decline in homicide last year, California still seems to rack up more slayings than any other state (1,929 in 2023), even Texas (1,845 in 2023), which is often cited by anti-gunners for its lax gun laws, or Florida (1,066 in 2023), infamously dubbed the “Gunshine State” by anti-gunners. The Sacramento Bee reported earlier this year how “guns are still overwhelmingly the most common weapon used to kill someone,” so it might be interesting to ask Gov. Gavin Newsom and his Everytown cheerleaders how all of those restrictive gun control laws are working.
The high-profile murder of insurance executive Brian Thompson on a downtown New York City sidewalk—on camera—certainly refutes arguments that tough gun control laws adopted in response to the 2022 Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling were necessary to keep the Big Apple streets safe.
In Boston, murders are still occurring, despite the restrictive gun control laws in Massachusetts. Do a search for stories dealing with murder in Boston. Again, one will see reports which, taken as a whole, demonstrate that restrictive Bay State gun laws really haven’t made the place safe.
According to Statista.com, the worst murder rate anywhere in the country is in Washington, D.C., where it is still difficult to legally own a firearm. The chart also shows, for example, Maryland with a higher murder rate (8.3 per 100,000)—and stricter gun laws—than neighboring Virginia (6 per 100,000). It could be argued these are “apples to oranges” comparisons, but wait.
Illinois has a murder rate higher than neighboring Indiana (6.6 to 5.6 per 100,000, respectively), and Montana—the state with the highest percentage of gun ownership in the country (66.3%), according to World Population Review, and a population of 1.13 million—has a far lower murder rate (2.8 per 100,000) than Delaware, which is much smaller but has a similar population at 1.03 million, and a murder rate of 4.5 per 100,000, according to Statista.com. Montana gun laws are far looser than in Delaware, where only 34.4 percent of the population are gun owners, including soon-to-be-former President Joe Biden, who owns at least one shotgun.
None of this will stop gun control proponents from demanding more laws, more regulations and more erosion of gun rights, and they will either ignore or simply argue the data above is anecdotal if not irrelevant, which is why gun owners—especially in Democrat-controlled states—can expect more of the same in 2025.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
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