The New York Times (NYT) is encouraging voters in states with gun control on the ballot to vote for stronger regulations under the guise that more gun control equals less crime.
Meanwhile, gun-controlled Chicago is nearing 600 homicides for 2016 alone.
According to the NYT, “analysis” from George Soros-funded Center for American Progress shows that “gun fatalities in states with weaker laws are three times as high as in those states with tougher restrictions.” Based on this, the paper calls for voters in “California, Maine, Nevada, and Washington” to support gun control measures that will be on the ballot next month.
The NYT does not mention that California is already one of the most gun-controlled states in the union. It has comprehensive background checks — which eliminate a “gun show loophole” or “online loophole” — a waiting period on gun purchases, firearm registration, and gun confiscation laws, yet it also had the May 23, 2014, Santa Barbara attack, the December 2, 2015, San Bernardino firearm-based terror attack, the June 1, 2016, murder-suicide on the gun-free UCLA campus, and the October 8, 2016, high-profile shooting deaths of two police officers in Palm Springs.
Washington state also has comprehensive background checks — the very checks Hillary Clinton, Gabby Giffords, and Michael Bloomberg-funded gun control groups pursue as key to American safety. Yet our nation’s most recent mass shooting took place in Burlington, Washington, on September 23. Five innocent lives were taken in Cascades Mall. On July 30, three innocents were shot and killed at a house party just north of Seattle, and in late February, the AP reported a gunman killed four people then himself in Belfair, Washington.
Ironically, much of the momentum for gun control continues to come from the December 14, 2012, attack on Sandy Hook Elementary. Even now, new laws are being pushed under the guise of preventing such an attack, and the NYT says a total of eight states have passed “universal background checks” — the same thing as comprehensive background checks — as a way to keep a Sandy Hook-like attack from occurring. But if the examples of California and Washington state teach us anything, it is that comprehensive background checks offer no hindrance to determined attackers.
In fact, it is worth remembering that Connecticut was ranked 5th in the nation for most stringent gun controls when the attack on Sandy Hook occurred. The Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence lauded Connecticut for 5th “toughest” laws in 2011, and in 2012, Adam Lanza circumvented every one of those laws by stealing his guns and carrying out a heinous crime in a gun-free zone.
Nevertheless, the NYT contends that more gun control makes us safer.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.