By: Teresa Mull
A new study shows record gun sales did not cause a spike in crime.
“Through July of last year, there was no clear association between the increase in firearm purchases and the increase in most interpersonal gun violence at the state level, according to a new study published in Injury Epidemiology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal,” reports the Guardian.
According to the study (which you can read here), there were “4.3 million excess firearm purchases nationally” from March through July 2020, with “excess” meaning above normal.
Rather than allege “more guns, more crime,” the study’s author told the Guardian, “We need to be looking at other factors, like job loss, economic change, the closure of schools and community organizations and nonprofits, and civil unrest.”
Axios reports, “The researchers note that it’s possible that many, if not most, of the excess firearm purchases went to people who already owned guns, which would have blunted their impact on rising homicide rates,” yet this contrasts with a recent Washington Post story that reports, “A striking portion of [last year’s] sales went to first-time gun buyers — 40 percent, according to the firearms industry’s trade association. Other studies show first-timers accounting for more like a fifth of sales in 2020, but that’s still unusually high, retailers said.”
This study, which many mainstream media outlets are deeming “surprising,” is a fly in the ointment of gun control activists, including our own president, who are using the crime wave as an excuse to push civilian disarmament initiatives.
But, as the saying goes, “The numbers don’t lie.”
Teresa Mull ([email protected]) is editor of Gunpowder Magazine.