The state of Arizona may not be thought of as being as pro-gun as some other places, but they aren’t exactly known for a proliferation of gun laws, either.

In fact, at least for a while, they’re one of the most pro-gun states with regard to firearm regulation.

That is a problem for some people, and those people absolutely love a new study that links the state’s lax gun laws with officer-involved shootings.

The study, to be released Thursday, comes as the Phoenix Police Department has been involved in nine shootings since the start of the year. Of those, seven suspects died on scene.

“It’s not just a Phoenix thing. It’s an Arizona thing,” said Will Humble, former Arizona public health director who commissioned the study.

The recent spike in shootings can be attributed to the state’s gun laws, the study found. It ranked the strength of Arizona’s gun laws 42 out of the 50 states.

The study also concluded the Phoenix police department had the highest rate of police shootings among the ten largest U.S. cities from 2015 to 2021. Tucson and Mesa had similar rates, the report said.

Except, as the site reported, a number of those suspects were legally prohibited from having firearms in the first place.

The last time I checked, that was a federal gun control law and not one Arizona nullified somehow. How, then, does anyone figure that a lack of gun laws are the problem when gun control clearly failed in many of these cases?

Further, these are officer-involved shootings. That means that unless the cops were gunning down innocent people for no reason–and there’s nothing suggesting they are–these were people who were trying to shoot law enforcement officers.

Now, let me suggest something outlandish for a moment. I’m going to suggest that the very people who would break the law by trying to kill police officers are the kind of people who might just buy a gun illegally regardless of what laws you have on the books.

Yeah, I know. It’s a crazy idea. We know criminals to be awfully law-abiding and all that, but it kind of fits.

On a more serious note, though, we have the fact that this “study” has managed to make this leap, yet there are other potential factors as well. For example, we have studies that link high temperatures with violent crime. Arizona isn’t exactly known for its Minnesota-like weather, now is it?

If heat can lead to an increase in violence, then it stands to reason a hot state like Arizona might well see its police officers involved in more shootings than elsewhere.

Was that accounted for in the study? It doesn’t seem like it was, and that’s a huge problem.

Then again, we know one of the problems with gun research is that the methodologies are incredibly suspect, and that’s me being polite. This is just another example.

Especially since, as per usual with anti-gun research, correlation is once again presented as causation. It’s not and these supposed experts know this.