Even as calendar year 2015 witnessed a surge in gun purchase background checks unequaled since the inception of such checks, it also saw a continued low number of accidental gun deaths.
In other words, contrary to leftist claims, more guns did not equal more accidental gun deaths.
For example, Breitbart News reported John Lott’s finding that there were 486 accidental gun deaths in 2014, which represented the lowest number of accidental gun deaths on record. And in 2015, the numbers were roughly the same. The Los Angeles Timesreported 489 accidental gun deaths in 2015.
The Times reports that gun controllers, i.e. “experts,” suggest the low number of accidental deaths is due, in part, to “a drop in the number of households that have guns.” But the problem with this claim is that the number of households with guns was not dropping when gun purchases and concealed carry permit issuance was surging.
In reality, 2015 was one of four years in which women were getting concealed carry permits at twice the pace of men, and many of these women were coming to gun ownership for the first time. The Crime Prevention Research Center found not only that women acquired permits at twice the pace of men during Obama’s second term but also “that permit-holding [was] increasing about 75 percent more quickly among minorities than among whites.” The increase in permit holding among minorities is also another indicator that the number of households with guns was not diminishing.
But gun controllers can use any reason to reject proof that Americans are responsible with their firearms. For example, despite the records lows regarding accidental gun deaths, Everytown for Gun Safety continues to cite the 2016 death of 14-year-old JaJuan McDowell as proof more laws are needed. They present his death as an accident although the person who shot him was charged and had to serve a sentence for involuntary manslaughter.
In other words, the justice system did not view the death as accidental.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at [email protected]. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
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