Dr. Vivek Murthy, Joe Biden’s Surgeon General, declared gun violence to be a public health crisis in June 2024. The control freaks and ban fans natter on endlessly about some “epidemic of gun violence” that will never end unless we pass an assault weapons ban or close the equally imaginary “gun show loophole.”
Like a flock of lobotomized parrots, the media faithfully spreads the word.
Fortunately for all of us, facts often run roughshod over propaganda.
“When nationwide data for jurisdictions of all sizes is reported by the FBI later this year, there is a strong possibility that homicides in 2025 will drop to about 4.0 per 100,000 residents. That would be the lowest rate ever recorded in law enforcement or public health data going back to 1900, and would mark the largest single-year percentage drop in the homicide rate on record.”
That’s from Crime Trends in U.S. Cities, the Council on Criminal Justice’s (CCJ) annual report based on offense data for selected American cities and the nation in 2025.
The FBI’s most recent statistics back up the council’s predictions. According to the agency’s Crime Data Explorer, murder is down by nearly 18%.
CCJ also reported a steep year-over-year decline in homicides across its sample of major cities. As a group, they reported there were 954 fewer murders, a reduction of about 20% from 2024 to 2025.
This should be fairly big news. After four years of sackcloth and ashes, wailing and weeping about a very transitory spike in the homicide rate, the CCJ report is blue skies and sunshine.
This isn’t the gun control gang’s first rodeo with reality.
In February 2019, Marist conducted a telephone survey of American adults. NPR and the PBS Newshour commissioned the poll. It covered gun control and American attitudes about it.
The timing of the survey was suspect. It was almost exactly a year since the shooting incident at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. David Hogg and the Gun-Grabbers were fanning the flames of public hysteria, and the Florida Legislature was falling all over itself, passing gun laws without any consideration of whether they would have any real impact.
Scant notice was paid to the findings of the special commission formed to do an in-depth investigation. This is hardly surprising: the commission identified misguided policies, incompetence of the school’s administration and staff, the “abysmal” law enforcement response (which led to the removal of the Broward County Sheriff) and just about anything other than the rifle.
The Marist poll delivered the expected results: Enthusiastic support for popular gun control laws and a willingness to sacrifice civil liberties. In short, just what might be expected when malfeasance meets gullibility.
The last question on the survey is worth a raised eyebrow or two:
“From what you have read or heard, do you think, compared to 25 years ago, the per capita gun murder rate in the U.S. is higher, lower, or about the same?”
Fifty-nine percent of survey participants believed the rate had increased; 23% said it was about the same.
Data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows the per-capita gun murder rate plunged 36% between 1994 and 2018.
By the numbers, 82% of those surveyed were wrong. Of course, there’s no way to know how many of the responses were due to acquiescence bias (where participants’ answers are based on what they believe they are supposed to say). However, the lopsided percentage indicates a majority really do believe the murder rate has increased.
Taken as a measure to gauge Americans’ taste for the gun control Kool-Aid, it’s a solid success. 82% of our adults believe something totally untrue.
In other words, 82% of our adult population doesn’t know what it really needs to know to make an informed decision.
Since NPR and the PBS NewsHour commissioned the survey, it received a fair amount of media attention – except for that last question. Almost none of the reporting even mentioned it. And I certainly don’t recall anyone drawing the obvious conclusion.
It is safe to say there’s no epidemic of actual “violence” in gun violence.
Legislation is reactive; education is proactive. Education is how to prevent tragedy.
The NSSF’s Project Childsafe is the gold standard in firearm accident prevention. Since going live at the end of the Twentieth Century, Project Childsafe has distributed 41 million free gun safety kits, including a cable-style gun lock, through law enforcement agencies nationwide. Having seen the gun control gang’s attempts, there’s no comparison.
Suicides committed with a gun account for nearly 60% of all firearm-related fatalities. Suicides are beloved by the Brady Bunch, Everytown, and Giffords. Gun-grabbers depend on the suicide stats to keep their bogeymen inflated: They’re the only category of ‘gun violence’ where the numbers are still growing.
However, even suicide isn’t a sure-fire shelter for gun control aspirations. A large percentage of suicides are carried out by other means.
That’s an awful lot of people to just ignore – unless the focus is on taking guns rather than saving lives.
In 2022, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Gun control zealots were beside themselves with delight. Considering the amount of damage Joe Biden was able to do with it, their glee was probably justified.
The Act included provisions for grants to assist states in implementing red flag laws. One of the conditions imposed was a requirement:
“(P)re-deprivation and post-deprivation due process rights that prevent any violation or infringement of the Constitution of the United States, including but not limited to the Bill of Rights, and the substantive or procedural due process rights guaranteed under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, …Such programs must include, at the appropriate phase to prevent any violation of constitutional rights, at minimum, notice, the right to an in-person hearing, an unbiased adjudicator, the right to know opposing evidence, the right to present evidence, and the right to confront adverse witnesses.”
Needless to say, not a single gun control group supported compliance; not a single existing red flag law was changed. Even Maine’s new red flag law doesn’t comply.
This probably won’t come as a surprise: Considered as a group, states with red flag laws saw the use of guns in suicide increase.
Because of course it did.
March NICS Show Steady Gun Demand, While NFA Checks Explode More Than 121%
About Bill Cawthon
Bill Cawthon first became a gun owner 55 years ago. He has been an active advocate for Americans’ civil liberties for more than a decade. He is the information director for the Second Amendment Society of Texas.
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