Why?

Because they've been lied to.

Wait...doesn't that kind of go against what I just said? Not really. You see, a lot of the rank-and-file anti-gunners really do believe these things. They might be good people who just bought into the idea that was pushed at them, particularly after something terrible happens.

But there are those who know good and well that they're pushing a lie, or at least knowingly misdirecting people, and keep pushing it anyway, such as this article out of Michigan.

Last week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer created a Gun Violence Prevention Task Force with the goal of decreasing gun-related incidents in Michigan. But what are the limitations groups like this face when it comes to gun violence?  

Just this month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling prohibiting the ban on bump stocks, attachments that allow semi-automatic rifles to fire bullets at rates similar to fully automatic machine guns. It’s the latest example of how the court’s interpretation of the Second Amendment can have a chilling effect on state and local governments. 

Michigan had over 1,500 firearm deaths in 2022, according to the Center for Disease Control. The CDC also reports unintentional injury is the fourth leading cause of death among infants in the U.S., and is the top cause of death among children and adolescents aged 1–17 years; with firearms the leading cause of injuries.

Now, I have little issue with the first two paragraphs. Yes, they're biased, but I expect that.

In the third paragraph, though, we see a neat little way to lie with statistics. It cites 1,500 firearm deaths in 2022 in Michigan alone, which may be correct or not. Despite having links in the first two paragraphs to support their claims, there's not one in this paragraph so we're unable to see what numbers they're using.

For the sake of argument, I'm going to accept it.

Now, they then get into the idea that unintentional injury is the fourth leading cause of children--thankfully, they don't include legal adults, which is a pleasant change--with firearms being the leading cause of these injuries.

None of this appears to be factually inaccurate, but leading with a number like 1,500 people, then including this particular bit about kids leads some to assume a large portion of these 1,500 are kids accidentally shooting themselves or someone else with a gun.

That's not remotely accurate. 

Child deaths tend to be fairly rare in and of themselves, and while unintentional injuries with a gun might be the fourth-leading cause of child death, it doesn't mean that even the majority of those child deaths are because of guns.

The rest of the article is really nothing more than pushing gun control as if there's absolutely no viable critique of these laws humanly possible. They talk to an anti-gunner and a cop who is supportive of these laws. There's absolutely no attempt made to get the other side of the story, so after starting the article with mistruth, misrepresentation, or outright lies

People who read this will think they have a handle on the situation, but they don't. They won't have a grip on what they're actually saying, much less believing.

Of course, that's by design. If people understood the scope of the issues in their totality, they wouldn't support gun control in the least.

So, we get lies, damned lies, and statistics that are manipulated and presented to be more troubling than they actually should be, all while the numbers that show this stuff doesn't work are actively suppressed by the same people.

Your rank-and-file gun control advocate might be a well-meaning person who just thinks a few restrictions will make our world safer. At least some of them are potentially sociopaths who don't blink at the prospect of lying to curtail your rights.