Tragedies Like The Colorado Shooting Are A Poor Justification For Gun Control
Already the political finger-pointing over the shooting in Aurora, Colorado has begun. If it’s not the media jumping to the conclusion that the shooter was a member of a tea party organization, it’s politicians using the tragedy as an excuse for gun control.
Case in point, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who doesn’t think Americans should be trusted with a Big Gulp let alone a gun:
On his weekly WOR Radio appearance, Mayor Michael Bloomberg also spoke out about the shooting. He called on Obama and Romney to respond to by detailing their plans to improve gun control.
“Soothing words are nice, but maybe it’s time that the two people who want to be President of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country,” Bloomberg said.
The problem with using a shooting like the one in Aurora as a basis for public policy is that it’s an anecdote. It’s a tragedy that sparks a lot of media coverage and emotion, as well it should, but statistically it’s not significant.
If we look at actual statistics, the truth is that even as the occurrence of lawful gun ownership and gun possession (there are now 8 million people who hold CCW permits according to the GAO) have increased nationally, rates of violent crime have been decreasing according to numbers from the FBI.
Nationally, as we have loosened gun control laws and as more citizens have taken up gun ownership, crime rates have gone down. We shouldn’t let gun control advocates leverage the emotions of a tragedy to obfuscate that simple math. In general, more guns has meant less crime.
Tags: gun control
