On April 22, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was rescinding 365 grants it said were no longer aligned with the interests of the Trump Administration.
A list of the canceled grants appeared in a Reuters news story. We studied the list, which covered 365 grants with total funding of $818,798,762. We removed one community-based intervention grant of $2 million to Taler Salud of Loiza, Puerto Rico because Puerto Rico is not a state. This reduced the number of grants to 364 with total funding of $816,798,762.
After the original announcement was made, the DOJ restored funding for the National Center for Victims of Crime and the National Network to End Domestic Violence.
Currently the total cuts, or savings, depending on your point of view, amount to $809,798,762.
Considering the screeching Giffords made when White House actions against some law firms jeopardized their source of free or discounted legal services, it’s no surprise Giffords went ballistic when the cuts were announced.
Paul Carrillo, head of the Giffords Center for Violence Intervention, said.“It’s not an exaggeration to say that pulling violence intervention workers out of communities will lead to an immediate surge in violence—people will die.”
“Brave intervention workers help bring down violent crime rates and ensure more young people make it home safe each night, and law enforcement benefit greatly when these efforts are part of a coordinated, comprehensive strategy.”
When we looked at the actual grants and the facts surrounding them, we quickly found Carrillo was almost certainly exaggerating. In fact, it was yet one more gun control whopper.
There were 79 community intervention programs, about 21.7% of the 365 total grants, funding for those 80 grants comes to $158,644,405. But that includes grants for hate crimes, research, and training. When it comes to actual community-based intervention, the category mentioned by Carrillo, there are just 60 grants (about 16% of the total) with funding coming to $136,605,137 (about 17% of the total).
The community-based intervention grants were the largest group and got the largest piece of the DOJ pie, but the vast majority of the pie was earmarked for other purposes.
What has been the result of the efforts of those “brave intervention workers?” We have to guess people who have commented on the programs haven’t looked at the outcomes, because based on the most objective data we could find, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Fatal Injury Reports, neither the number of homicides nor the homicide rate declined. In fact, looking at the 5-year period from 2019 to 2023, the homicide rates in the 23 states receiving community-based intervention grants saw their average homicide rates increased more than the national rate. Note two states, Missouri and Oklahoma, both constitutional carry states, reported reductions. Even if they had done the digging, Giffords probably wouldn’t have said anything about them: It would spoil the propaganda narrative.
We used the numbers for all homicides, regardless of the instrumentality used. After all, violence is violence and “gun violence” is just an exaggeration like the one Carrillo mentioned.
So Giffords playing fast and loose with the facts, which is SOP for gun control groups. They also showed how hypocritical they and the rest of the gun control cult really are.
Back in 2015, the Department of Justice awarded a $2.4 million grant to the National Shooting Sports Foundation for use in expanding Project ChildSafe. Gun control groups and the liberal media went berserk, demanding the DOJ rescind the grant – despite the fact no gun control group has ever come up with a even a remotely comparable program.
Some, the ones that had actually looked at Project ChildSafe, belittled it the free lock because the Child Safety Lock Act of 2005 required dealers to provide a “firearm locking device” with every handgun sold on or after April 14, 2005. Rifles and shotguns were not affected.
So they ignored some inconvenient facts. Project ChildSafe was kicked off in 1999, six years before the federal law went into effect. A person could obtain a free safety kit, which included more than a lock, from law enforcement agencies nationwide, regardless of the type of firearm they owned or when they acquired it. This is how one does true gun safety, which is probably why the gun control gang has never tried it.
It appears gun control advocates have become so accustomed to lying through their teeth and being coddled by politicians and the mainstream media, the new reality of Trump’s second term has left them stunned.
We have to admit it’s a good look for them.
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