We’ve been documenting Vermont’s decline for years, but not the National Rifle Association is getting in on the gig. They’ve got an article titled “Is Gun Control Making Vermont Less Safe?”
The answer is yes, but the NRA brought receipts.
According to CDC fatal injury data, the total number and crude rate of “violence-related firearm deaths” (which includes suicides) increased from 2017 to 2021. Both the total number and crude rate of “violence-related firearm deaths” fell during the same period in neighboring New Hampshire. In Vermont, from 2017 to 2021 “violence-related firearm deaths” among kids ages 0-26 increased 40 percent.
According to FBI data, the violent crime rate increased in Vermont from 2017 to 2020. From 2017 to the first full year of Vermont’s 2018 gun control measures (2019) the violent crime rate rose by nearly 20 percent. Over the same period, New Hampshire’s violent crime rate fell by 19 percent. Maine’s violent crime rate also fell over this period. For 2021, Vermont slipped to 48th in violent crime, with New Hampshire taking the 49th slot and Maine taking 50.
There is plenty of other good stuff in there, including an analysis of analysis involving researchers, bias intentional or accidental, or how “Much of social science is of dubious value, even before trying to account for political bias.”
The point of laying out this information is to draw attention to how political advocates and the media can manipulate data to construct whatever preexisting narrative they want. While in this case accurate statistical information was used to concoct a pro-gun narrative, gun control advocates and their media lapdogs employ the same tactics to argue the reverse.
Two things are not in dispute. Vermont Democrats have embraced the same laws that have turned Chicago into a gun-crime mecca, and those laws are having a similar effect in Vermont: crime and gun crime are up.
As with all Democrat interventions, you get the opposite result of the advertised benefit.
HT | True North Reports
Independent media is a rare and precious thing, even here in New Hampshire, where many in “new media” continue to carry the establishment’s water.
GraniteGrok.com is a rare exception. Please consider the value we provide and then commit to a monthly subscription, a one-time online donation (via PayPal or GiveSendGo), or you can donate by check*.
We are looking for a few benefactors, but every donation helps.
Thank You for Your Support.
*For donations by check, please email steve@granitegrok.com for the address.
