Month after month after month we note that NICS background checks—a proxy for gun sales in the United States—keeps setting new records. Every single month, we have hundreds of thousands of more firearms in circulation, tens of thousands of more first-time gun buyers, more repeat buyers, and thousands of new concealed carry permits issued across the nation.

If the logic of gun control groups that “more guns equals more crime” held true, then this nation should be in the middle of a near civil war.

But we aren’t.

Instead we’re in the middle of the most peaceful time in recorded American history, with per capita homicide at an all-time low according to the FBI, with criminal homicides with firearms plunging to just over 8,100 nationwide. Firearms-related “accidents” (negligent discharges) are also at an all-time low, and continue a long-term decline, plunging 50% in the past 20 years.

The FBI has now just released preliminary data that shows a nearly 20-percent drop in criminal homicides of law enforcement officers in the past year, mirroring other trends which show our society becoming less violent as it becomes better armed.

Preliminary statistics released today by the FBI show that 41 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2015. This is a decrease of almost 20 percent when compared with the 51 officers killed in 2014. By region, 19 officers died as a result of criminal acts that occurred in the South, nine officers in the West, five officers in the Midwest, four in the Northeast, and four in Puerto Rico.

By circumstance, eight officers were investigating suspicious persons/circumstances; seven were engaged in tactical situations; six officers were conducting traffic pursuits/stops; four were killed as a result of ambushes (entrapment/premeditation); three officers were killed as a result of unprovoked attacks; three died from injuries inflicted while answering disturbance calls (all three being domestic disturbance calls); three officers were killed while answering robbery in progress calls or pursuing robbery suspects; two were handling, transporting, or maintaining custody of prisoners; two officers were handling persons with mental illness; one sustained fatal injuries while performing an investigative activity; one was answering a burglary in progress call or pursuing a burglary suspect; and one officer was killed while attempting other arrest.

Our society is radically changing with the emergence of “Gun Culture 2.0,” where women, younger shooters, and urban shooters are the fastest-growing demographics of gun owners. We are a nation that has embraced gun ownership as never before, where the fastest growing high school sport is shooting, and where citizens are reasserting their natural right to “constitutional carry” of firearms without a permit through one state after another.

The constant claims from gun control supporters that “more guns equal more crime” is a demonstrable lie.