Through a collaboration between the Transparency Foundation and Not Me California, a study was conducted that the groups claim debunks an anti-gun group’s assertions. The report based on their research is called “California’s Gun Control Data Deception: California Politicians and Gun Control Activists Misrepresent Data to Promote a False Narrative to Falsely Claim Gun Control Laws Are Working.”
According to an announcement released by Not Me California, the investigation looked into the data that’s used by Giffords to create the “Giffords Gun Law Scorecard.” They state that they “felt compelled to launch their investigation after Governor Gavin Newsom cited the Scorecard to boast that California’s sweeping anti-gun laws were working in reducing violent crime and to bolster his proposal to amend the US Constitution to allow more stringent anti-gun laws nationwide.”
Also in their announcement they lay out some of the contents of the report:
- Deception 1: Faulty Definition of Gun Crime: Giffords inflates gun violence by 58% by including suicides in their data sets versus just analyzing gun-related violent crimes.
- Deception 2: Ignoring Data on How Guns Save Lives: Giffords excludes any data relating to instances where a firearm saved lives during a crime
- Deception 3: Cherry-Picked Data and Misleading Comparisons: Giffords excluded a jurisdiction with strict gun control and simultaneously high levels of violent crime (Washington, DC) that would have refuted its Scorecard’s conclusions. Giffords rankings also completely ignore that violent crime is rising in California – the state they tout as such a gun control success.
- Deception 4: Falsely Claiming Gun Control Laws Reduce Violence: Giffords makes this sweeping conclusion event though its own data shows otherwise. In fact, some states with poor Giffords gun law rankings—such as South Dakota or New Hampshire—have lower crime rates than A-ranked California or A- ranked Illinois.
- Deception 5: Ignoring the Rise of Guns to Protect Politicians and Within Government Agencies: Giffords focuses on the enactment of gun control measures which reduce the ability of everyday Americans to protect themselves, but remains completely silent on the use of firearms to protect some of their movement’s biggest donors like Michael Bloomberg as well as politicians like Gavin Newsom who support gun control.
In opening about exposing Giffords’ methodology, the report states the following:
Media outlets love to run stories on the latest “ranking” study being released. In many cases, the ranking is based on concrete data sets that are irrefutable – e.g. “Cities with the highest divorce rate” and “States with the cheapest gas.” But in other cases the ranking studies make less data-driven or concrete claims like “Safest cities” or even “Happiest Cities.”
Before promoting a ranking, it is crucial to examine the underlying methodology that produced the ranking. What data is being used? Is the data credible and consistent across the comparison groups? What other factors could explain the differences in the comparison groups?
In the report’s comparisons, they discussed something that I noticed years ago. For example, they say that “New Hampshire, with its ‘D-’ grade, has a lower gun death rate than ‘A-’ states like Illinois, Oregon and Washington, while “F”-rated Texas has a lower gun death rate than ‘A-’ Colorado.” The report continues to state:
The failure of Giffords’ statistical nonsense is even more obvious by simply comparing Massachusetts and New Hampshire, neighboring states that are polar opposites in terms of gun laws. Yet somehow, both states have among the lowest amount of firearms-related crime in the US, and overall violent crime in New Hampshire—which has minimal firearms restrictions—is half that of Massachusetts.
My 2021 analysis observed that “New Hampshire, with what I consider freedom-friendly laws, id. est. Constitutional Carry, no limits on magazines, only a NICS check needed for purchase, no limitations on modern sporting arms, etc…”
...They have a whopping 90% death rate via firearms from suicides vs total firearm deaths, the largest in the nation!?
What can this tell us? It tells us that the Live Free or Die state does not have many murders or accidental deaths from guns in comparison.
It tells us that when it comes to guns, a New Hampshire resident is more apt to use a firearm on themselves than another individual 90% of the time.
New Jersey, Illinois, and Maryland, with the lowest percentages [of suicide by firearm], 40% – High crime, restrictive laws…Versus New Hampshire, with 90% – Low crime, non-restrictive laws.
It’s important to note that Massachusetts has consistently ranked as the most violent state in New England. Neighboring Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine all have permitless carry, and all have exceptionally lower violent crime than the Bay State. The Not Me California report mentions that too.
What’s also compelling about Massachusetts, in 2020, they had some interesting numbers to look at, “The new numbers released for 2020 reflect an 111% increase in gun related homicides since the passage of the 1998 Gun Control Act.” The numbers had trended upwards since 1998, with a few drops over the years, but climbing again to an all time high.
The same report put out by Gun Owners Action League mentions something that Giffords and MSM needs to consider too:
The report includes numbers on successful suicides and does reflect a 13% decrease in gun related suicides. That small gain was greatly overshadowed by the drastic increase in hanging/suffocation suicides of approximately 63%. This is a fact we tried to ram home during the Red Flag Law debates in 2018. This information was completely ignored, and the supporters of the law blocked any debate on adding mental health assistance to the bill.
It takes a village…All of these data points are relevant, and groups like Giffords et.al. ignore the real statistics.
“The sweeping statements made by California Governor Gavin Newsom and the Giffords Law Center are not only unsubstantiated, but thorough yet simple analysis suggest there is absolutely no correlation between gun control laws and reduction in crime and violence,” says study director Al Medioli, Senior Fellow at the Transparency Foundation.
“It is shameful that Giffords Law Center is intentionally misrepresenting data and promoting a false narrative to promote flawed gun control policies that infringe on constitutional rights while making the public less safe – and that the media seems unwilling to question the data or methodology being used,” says Michael Schwartz, President of Not Me California.
I’ve only scratched the surface on taking in this report, but am impressed with what I’m reading so far. Hopefully these findings will help dispel the gospel-like status that mainstream media gives to reports like Giffords’ Report Card.
If you’d like to learn more about Not Me California, head over to their homepage. Also, consider supporting the group. Without help, work like the study done to produce this report can’t be done. More information about The Transparency Foundation can be found HERE and they too run on contributions.