Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been a savior of the Second Amendment this year. Had it not been for him doing everything he could to block anti-gun legislation, we’d likely have a slew of new gun control laws on the books and little hope of seeing them repealed. He deserves a lot of applause for what he’s done in that regard.

However, with crime skyrocketing, it was only a matter of time before someone tried to make a thing of that effort.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell complained on Tuesday about spiking murder rates in 2020. But while he blamed this on Democrats and proposals to defund the police, he ignored his own role in blocking gun violence legislation.

In a speech on the Senate floor, the Kentucky Republican told colleagues, “Last year our nation saw a 30% jump in homicides — the biggest jump in the murder rate in modern history. The worst spike in the homicide rate in modern American history.”

“Responding to this terrible trend should be very simple. It should be a no-brainer for elected officials at every level. More and better resources for more and better policing, for more and better community safety. Instead, liberal local officials across the country, from city halls and city councils to right here in Congress, have gotten caught up in the radicalism of ‘Defund The Police,'” McConnell charged.

He made no mention of the fact that this historic spike occurred on then-President Donald Trump’s watch. He also made no mention of the fact that the increase in the number of homicides has been smaller since President Joe Biden took office in January.

…

The vast majority of the homicides committed in 2020 — 77%, the highest percentage ever recorded — involved guns. The ongoing gun violence spike has coincided with a surge in firearm and ammunition purchases, according to CNN.

From 2015 to 2020, McConnell used his position as majority leader to block consideration in the Senate of proposals to curb gun violence, decrying any efforts to “politicize” mass shootings and “undermine” Americans’ “fundamental Second Amendment rights.”

Let me make it very clear for the author of this piece. Opposition to gun control is not criminal empowerment since most criminals are already felons and can’t lawfully purchase a firearm in the first place.

The surge in violent crime, particularly those involving firearms, had nothing to do with McConnell’s “failure” to push through preferred Democratic policies on guns. The average gun used in a crime was originally purchased almost a decade before its criminal use. More often than not, it was either stolen or purchased illegally from the jump as well.

Just how in the hell is gun control that only impacts lawful gun owners going to stop that?

While the author of this piece is intent on trying to place the blame for this on Republicans, he forgets that this also falls right after a surge in criminal justice reform spearheaded in major cities that involved not prosecuting certain smaller crimes, reduced or eliminated bail for suspects arrested for any number of other crimes, and an anti-police sentiment that resulted in many departments losing a significant amount of funding with threats that more might lose some.

All of that came at the hands of Democrats.

But no, it simply must be the lack of new gun control.

The problem here is that people like the author continually fail to show that any of these criminals are just walking into gun stores, buying firearms, then using them for criminal endeavors. Not a single study shows any such thing.

Quite the contrary, actually.

So no, McConnell doesn’t need to sit this discussion out because he had no role in this violent crime surge. The only people who need to sit this out are all of those who screamed about defunding the police, eliminating bail, and how certain crimes shouldn’t even be prosecuted. Those folks need to sit down, shut up, and keep their opinions to themselves moving forward.