Snake Oil

Of the thousands of questions we’ve answered, questions like the one below are among the most common. Often it’s couched as why won’t (insert Republicans, the NRA, or “right-wing gun nuts” here) quit blocking passage of (insert the preferred adjective here) gun control laws?

Whether it’s mass shootings, school shootings, homicides, suicides, or “gun violence,” the same old gun control laws the fans, politicians, and the media have been pushing for decades are supposedly the cure for what ails us. Even though just about all of them have been enacted at the state level and just about all of them have failed, gun control zealots remain committed. Governors and legislators in states like California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Washington apparently are addicted to gun control laws, passing all they can, regardless of the Constitution, the Supreme Court, or the dramatic increases in homicides like those seen in Colorado and Washington, both of which saw double-digit increases in their homicide rates after they began passing gun control laws.

It’s important to remember gun control laws aren’t just supposed to keep the problem from getting worse, they’re supposed to reduce deaths and injuries. Yet there is no evidence anywhere showing gun control saves as many lives as guns used defensively by Americans every year.

There is a growing body of evidence indicating the goal of gun control fans isn’t the saving of lives or the reduction of violence: It’s to disarm the American people.