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Brady issues report lauding order that's done nothing

AP Photo/Keith Srakocic

The idea that a group like Brady would support gun control, regardless of where it comes from, isn’t surprising. After all, that’s their whole schtick. Without it, they’re just a bunch of people sitting around with nothing to do. That’s not exactly a winning fundraising pitch, now is it?

So, it’s not surprising that they’d do what they could to advance the idea that gun control is a good thing.

However, you’d expect them to at least wait to issue a “report” on a rule until it’s actually done something.

You would be wrong.

The national gun violence prevention group Brady released a report this morning detailing the impacts of Gov. Phil Murphy’s Executive Order 83, which directed state departments involved in firearm procurement to promote gun safety protocols among the firearm manufacturers and retailers they do business with.

After reviewing 376 pages of open records requests, the group contends that the executive order was successful at encouraging better spending of taxpayer money and more dialogue among firearm manufacturers about gun safety.

“Executive Order 83 ensures that taxpayer dollars are being used wisely on businesses committed to making New Jersey communities safer, in turn promoting gun safety by incentivizing business practices that reduce gun violence,” the group wrote in a statement.

Except, there’s really no evidence it’s done any such thing.

Gun manufacturers already want gun safety in place. Not what groups like Brady often call “gun safety,” mind you, but actual safety with firearms. After all, customers who get shot may not be return customers. Further, every bad thing that happens with a gun is something that gun control advocates use to try to restrict guns.

It’s in their best interests to advance the idea of firearm safety. Further, most of them have done so for decades.

But did Executive Order 83 really accomplish much? Not so far, at least.

First, understand that it was signed in 2019. Since then, yes, the overall crime rate dropped in 2020. However, that crime rate was already trending downward well before the order was signed.

Further, their homicide rate jumped up 25 percent last year. While the national increase was about 30 percent, that difference isn’t likely to be accounted for by a rule that only impacts gun makers and gun stores.

So why did Brady issue this report?

The answer is simple. They’re hacks who are trying to advance a narrative and aren’t above manipulating the facts to try and do just that.

The truth is that Murphy’s order doesn’t seem to have accomplished a damn thing. In the process of pretending otherwise, though, Brady is killing any credibility it might have still had by issuing a report so easily debunkable.

Anyone can look at the statistics and see that there isn’t any appreciable impact.

In fact, it’s amazing how much it looks like the assault weapon ban–a bit of legislation that Brady loves–because the support for it seems to be a trend that started well before the rule was put in place and will likely continue until well afterward.

Yet the group still wants to laud an order with that kind of track record? Especially one that’s really only been in place a relatively short period of time like this one? I mean, a year and a half is a long time to be locked down in your home due to a pandemic, but it’s not very long to see if an executive order is actually having anything approaching an impact.

But, then again, Brady didn’t have their name in the news much lately and you don’t get donations by being quiet. If you don’t put your name out there, people think you’re just a bunch of people sitting in a room, doing nothing, and we know what that will do.