Recently, the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence released its report card on all 50 states, rating them as far as “gun safety” goes. The top score went to California, with a 79 out of 100 points. My own New Hampshire scored a 9 (alongside Nevada and Texas), and 22 states scored even lower — with Utah ranking a mighty zero.
My goodness. I had no idea I lived in such a dangerous state. I thought we were pretty safe.
Oh, right. We are.
New Hampshire ranks 50th on that list, with a score of 0.43. And California? Brady’s “safest” state? 4.82 — more than 11 times worse. (That’s gun homicides per 100,000 residents.)
Oh, and Utah? The state that scored a zero? Twice as bad as New Hampshire, with 0.93. That’s still less than one-fifth of California.
I’d really like to see how Washington, DC ranks, as they have the toughest gun control laws and exceptionally high murder rates, but the Brady Campaign — for some reason — doesn’t want to discuss them.
I’m not a big fan of the “correlation equals causation” fallacy, but sometimes it holds true. And when there is such a dramatic correlation — an inverse relationship between the strength of gun control laws and the numbers of gun-related homicides committed — it’s absolutely mind-boggling that anyone could deny the plain reality of the situation:
Anti-gun laws do not prevent gun violence. Anti-gun laws, if they have any effect, ENCOURAGE gun violence.
Think about the mass shootings that the anti-gun crowd likes to bring up. How many of them happen in places where firearms are not restricted or banned? None of them. They happen most often in places that have chosen to designate themselves “gun-free zones” — which assures the spree killers a ready supply of defenseless victims.
If the mere presence and ready access to guns is such a lure for gun violence, kindly cite to me a shooting spree that took place at a gun show. I’d feel a thousand times safer at one of those than on the Virginia Tech campus, where the administration assured all its charges that they were safe because they had RULES that kept the guns away.
According to the Brady gun-grabbers, New Hampshire gets a failing grade and scored only a 9 out of 100 on “responsible” gun-control laws.
I, too, am gravely disappointed in this.
We oughta aim for scoring even lower next time. Look out, Vermont (8 points) — we can’t let you hold the title of “Brady Gun-Grabber’s Worst State In New England.”
