The Trace likes to bill itself as a simple newsroom covering the stories that involve guns. In theory, this wouldn't be a horrific thing because, in a fair newsroom, at least some of those are going to be positive toward gun ownership. But The Trace is funded by former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is as anti-gun as they come.
Which means you get nothing but anti-gun propaganda filtered through the term "newsroom" to make it seem like it's unbiased.
It's not, and all it takes for anyone to see it is a little critical thinking.
For example, I saw some discussion about this little piece from the "newsroom" and had to take a look.
The number of gun carry licenses revoked by the Philadelphia Police Department jumped nearly two and half times over the past five years, according to data obtained by The Trace, an increase that has drawn federal scrutiny over the criteria the department is using to make its decisions.
The police revoked nearly 2,200 carry licenses last year, more than double the number from 2021, when they revoked over 800, the data shows. In June, the Justice Department launched an investigation into whether the police were using vague standards to revoke carry licenses, part of a broader Trump administration effort to overturn gun restrictions it views as unconstitutional. A spokesperson said the Justice Department does not comment on active investigations.
Now, I don't doubt the numbers.
The problem is that they don't provide any context beyond the total numbers.
Prior to the pandemic, Philadelphia typically had around 7,000 carry permits in the city. That means the number of revocations each year would be a reflection of that. In 2021, though, the number of permits soared to more than 52,000. That's a massive increase, but few people get a license revoked the same year it's issued. That means that people who do whatever can lead to a revocation didn't start having it happen until the next year at the earliest, which is when the uptick in revocations started.
Because we don't have revocation numbers for 2020 in this piece, rather conveniently, we can't actually look at percentages and see if the spike in revocations tracks with the previous ratios of revocations to licenses.
This is a simple question that any supposed journalist would want to ask if they're interested in accurate reporting. Especially when they know the DOJ is investigating Philly's revocations already.
Instead, The Trace has decided to serve as a mouthpiece for Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner in his own anti-gun jihad. Take, for example, the closing paragraph in this piece.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner questioned the motives behind the federal probe and said he supported the police revoking more licenses. “There’s way too many guns out there. There’s way too many permits out there,” he said. “We see homicides by people with a permit to carry all the time.”
That's a bold statement, but it doesn't hold up to the facts. We have the statistics on this one, after all, and it doesn't support Krasner's assertion in the least.
Of course, there's some wiggle room in here for Krasner. He can cast aspersions on licensed carriers, painting us all as dangerous people, then retreat behind a tiny handful of exceptions spread out over years and say that's what he meant by "all the time."
It's a lie. It's bogus, and Krasner knows it.
Never mind that Krasner has made it clear that he just hates guns, not criminals.
Unfortunately, this is how the anti-gun media does things. They present a problem, refuse to acknowledge the context around the problem-in this case, a combination of the massive spike in carry permits and a DA's office that may well be revoking permits illegally-and instead leave readers thinking that the wrong sorts of people are getting those permits.
It's not news, it's propaganda.
It's not even well-disguised propaganda, either.
