A study published in the British Medical Journal, March 2019, alleged that states with “permissive” gun laws had more mass shootings than states with strict gun laws. (Someone tell that to California). Several media outlets ran with it, which fed into the push for gun control. Only one problem: the fine print stated that the premise of the study had not been verified.
Outlets like Vox, Newsweek, Yahoo News, The Hill ran with the story without paying attention to the disclaimer, according to Breitbart.
The study supposedly used FBI information from between 1998-2015 and came to the conclusion that:
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“States with more permissive gun laws and greater gun ownership had higher rates of mass shootings, and a growing divide appears to be emerging between restrictive and permissive states. Introduction Despite an increasing frequency of mass shootings in the US and the seemingly disproportionate occurrence of mass shootings in some states and not others, little research has been carried out to understand state level factors that could influence mass shootings. A 2018 report pointed to only three studies that had examined associations between gun laws and mass shooting events. However, testing the effects of state gun laws on the occurrence of mass shootings was not the primary objective of at least one of these studies and the body of evidence they represent was inconclusive in terms of determining the effects of specific state gun laws on mass shootings …
… The potential for omitted variable biases and reverse causation remain and future analyses are encouraged to build on our work by testing the before and-after effects of enactment or repeal of gun laws in specific states, or both, alongside appropriately matched control states. In addition, the state restrictiveness-permissiveness score we used has not been validated.”
Hint: always read the fine print.
The idea that states with permissive gun laws have more mass shootings is not verified. California has ‘mass shootings’ and California is highly restrictive. Texas has them and they are more permissive. You don’t need a “study” by liberals to understand that the shootings often take place in gun free zones.
The “study” was reportedly done with the help of several people, along with Paul Reeping from Columbia University’s Epidemiology Department. Statistics based numbers on a page are rarely accurate, and usually extremely faulty because they don’t take into account other factors. Gun violence has less to do with the guns or the laws regarding them, and much more to do with the perpetrators and their mindsets.
However, there is one point with which we must agree: there is a growing divide between “permissive and restrictive” – or rural and metro states. It is a divide which one day may lead to civil war.
H/T Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children
Related:
- ‘Bogus gun research’ and new gun control demands after Ill. shooting
- Baltimore body count continues to climb despite gun control
- Massachusetts gun control laws have failed, says GOAL report
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