Gun control groups rely on emotional backmail for the majority of their propaganda. This shouldn’t be surprising because data from verifiable, independent sources doesn’t support their agenda or the laws they propose. This requires massaging any numbers they do use to the point of triviality while claiming they are significant.
The manner in which gun control advocates select their ‘facts’ seems to be as random as tossing a deck of cards in the air or using a deck with 52 Jokers. They have to find some number that, if it is looked at in just the right way, provides a talking point they can (and will) shout from the rooftops.
A recent Giffords propaganda message is a perfect example of this. Whoever created the numbers jumbled data from two entirely different CDC reports, cherry-picked one data point from fatal injuries; grafted it onto the ten leading causes of death (almost entirely diseases like heart disease or cancer); and then cited a virtually meaningless estimate of the number of years of life lost. Giffords then used it to claim there were no were more years of life lost to ‘gun violence’ than those ten leading causes of death. It furthers the lie by playing 52-card pickup with the facts.
Looking into the CDC statistics for 2023, we found 59% of firearm-related homicides had victims between 13 and 34 years of age. This age group also committed 28% of all firearm-related suicides.
We then looked at the diseases that are the leading causes of death across all races, all ethnicities, all ages, and both genders. The leaders were heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes are all diseases with victims that are older. Yes, cancer can, and does, take lives across the entire range of human ages, but the median age at the time of death is 73.
So Giffords deliberately compares one cause of death with predominately younger victims to a variety of causes with significantly older victims and tries to make it sound alarming.
The chart below contains the Giffords claim in the blue block and the correct comparisons in the red block:
hysteria among the public. They have tried to turn ‘gun violence’ into an epidemic – or
at least a ‘public health crisis’ – so they can get around trying to push legislation they
know will never pass at the national level or in most states.
As it says in the graphic, firearm-related fatalities are not considered as the result of disease; they are counted as injuries, a totally different category. The same is true of poisoning, which is second-highest in years of life lost after guns according to Giffords.
Of course, Giffords is measuring ‘gun violence’ which includes any and all fatalities, no matter the cause. We can play that game, too, by combining Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease, Covid-19, Influenza & Pneumonia, and Pneumonitis and calling it ‘lung violence’, jumping it all the way up to third among the leading causes of death.
It’s almost fitting for gun control zealots to be misleading. After all, they’re calling a raft of worthless laws ‘commonsense’ and ‘life-saving’ when they’re anything but.
This is why it’s so important for us to stop playing defense and start attacking the gun control claims. The media isn’t going to do any honest fact-checking and getting some of the information can be challenging for most members of the public. We’re their only source of the truth.
