Knowing all too well that they can’t win on logic or in conventional political battles, Gun Control Inc. goes to great lengths to advance its anti-freedom agenda. They will even stoop to lows such as lying and deception to get their point across.
One of the most salient cases showcasing the gun control movement’s deceptive behavior involved pro-Second Amendment researcher and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center John Lott. Lott was initially invited to give a keynote commencement address at a high school located in Las Vega. Originally, 2,000 students were expected to be in attendance. However, this story took a strange twist after it was revealed that school doesn’t even exist.
Adding more to the deception, the civilian disarmament organization “Change the Ref” was able to convince media outlets across the globe to spread a blatant untruth about the degree of gun violence taking place in America.
According to the Change the Ref videos, there are roughly “3,044 graduating high school seniors that died from gun violence.” The students who supposedly died were represented by 3,044 empty chairs at the conference location. Lott gave a “dress rehearsal” talk in front of these chairs thinking that this would end up being just another normal event.
Lott observed how mainstream media sources worldwide instantly picked up on this story without even bothering to research the topic:
“It is a claim that received unquestioning national (e.g., USA Today, MSNBC, CNN, Washington Post) and international (e.g., The Guardian [UK], Stern [Germany], SBS News [Australia]) news coverage parroting this figure, even running the number in their headlines. But it is a number that isn’t even remotely close to the truth.”
After investigating the matter, Lott came to the conclusion that the numbers the media was pushing simply did not add up. In the 2020-2021 school year, 3.7 million students were expected to graduate. However, 3,000 of these high schoolers did not die in cases involving firearms. In America, there are about 4.1 million people who are 17-years old.
That said, Lott observed some uncomfortable facts that contradict gun control proponents’ statistical narrative concerning gun violence:
…..3,000 of them were not killed with firearms. In this country there are 4.1 million 17-year-olds. Yet, Centers for Disease Control statistics show that in 2019 (the last year for which data is available), 17-year-olds were the victims of 337 homicides, 18 accidental deaths, and 193 suicides. That’s a total of 548 gun deaths — about one-sixth the number cited by Change the Ref.
Playing statistical games is one way anti-Second Amendment operatives try to sway the public into supporting gun control. But when dealing with statistical figures, the devil is always in the details. Numbers can be fudged, and data can be presented in a misleading manner, potentially giving people the wrong perspective on a given issue.
Fundamentally, the case for the Second Amendment goes beyond statistical figures. It’s our God-given right and the ultimate fixture of a free society. The Second Amendment also has the pragmatic function of allowing lawful people — especially the physically vulnerable — to have a fighting chance against criminals who would normally overpower them.
While statistics have their place in making the case for the Second Amendment, they’re not the alpha and the omega of compelling arguments that we can make for the right to self-defense.
We should keep this in mind when we’re dealing with the anti-gun Left, who is more than willing to bend statistical figures to craft their narrative.
