BARR: The ‘Bad Science’ Behind Democrats’ Gun Control

From 2017 to 2019, America averaged 11 mass shootings per year; nearly double the rate of the three prior years. Although still a statistical rarity when it comes to crime, the uptick in mass shootings was cause for concern and attention by those on the right and the left. Yet, in 2020 America has endured only one such tragedy, not only running counter to the supposedly grim “new normal” painted by Democrats as a way to shame Second Amendment supporters, but shattering the data trends altogether.

For the self-proclaimed “Party of Science,” the facts this year – a record number of gun sales and a historically low number of mass shootings — should prompt at least a brief reflection on the party’s anti-gun platform, which holds that guns are always and inherently dangerous. Democrats’ take on “science,” however, is just as bad as their understanding of the Second Amendment. When it comes to actual facts about firearms, they cannot close their eyes and ears fast enough.

The simple, obvious truth is that if gun ownership rose to an all-time high and mass shooting incidents fell dramatically during the same period, gun ownership is not the cause of mass shootings.  This should have been obvious long before 2020, but for all of their histrionics about conservatives not wanting to talk about gun violence in the wake of mass shootings, Democrats continue their refusal to talk about anything other than banning guns as the solution to violent crime (including shootings in cities with the most stringent gun control laws already on the books).