It never fails, the more violent crime rises in Democrat-run cities, the more gun control advocates blame legal gun sales. Not to mention, they love to blame the NRA and similar organizations like the Second Amendment Foundation. Even though there is absolutely no evidence of either claim. For this reason, DRGO (Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership) released a study on the subject. The study proves no correlation between legal gun sales and violent crime.
DRGO Study – Violent Crime Not Driven by Legal Gun Sales
It seems that whenever there’s a shooting of some kind, media and gun control advocates blame law-abiding gun owners. And, inevitably, once the facts emerge, the story gets memory-holed because it never fits the narrative. However, a new study, Legal Firearm Sales at State Level and Rates of Violent Crime, Property Crime, and Homicides, directly counters their claims.
The study, conducted by DRGO, a project of the Second Amendment Foundation, shows that legal gun sales aren’t the problem. In fact, according to the study, national homicides decreased as firearm sales increased during the 1999 – 2015 study period.
The study goes on to say, “Using a naive national model, increases in firearm sales were associated with significant decreases in multiple crime categories. However, a more robust analysis using generalized estimating equation estimates on state-level data demonstrated increases in firearms sales were not associated with changes in any crime variables examined.”
The DRGO study is based on a detailed, objective 50-state analysis from multiple entities. They include the National Instant Background Check System, Department of Justice Uniform Crime Reporting Program, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web-Based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System.
Executive Editor of DRGO, Dr. Robert Young says, “This confirms what those of us already know who follow all the research by medical, criminology and economic experts. Lawful gun possession is in no way related to homicide or other crime rates, and the constant drumbeat of anti-gun researchers and activists is a house built on sand.”
The report concludes, “Robust analysis does not identify an association between increased lawful firearm sales and rates of crime or homicide. Based on this, it is unclear if efforts to limit lawful firearm sales would have any effect on rates of crime, homicide, or injuries from violence committed with firearms.”
Not His First Study on the Topic
The man who conducted the study is Dr. Mark Hamill, MD, FACS, FCCM. He’s an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Nebraska, long-time gun owner, and former law enforcement officer. And this is not his first study on this topic.
In 2019 Hamill, along with co-authors, published another study. The title of the study is State Level Firearm Concealed-Carry Legislation and Rates of Homicide and Other Violent Crime. The study analyzes 30 years of data, state by state. The findings are almost identical to the most recent study.
According to the study, “During the study period, all states moved to adopt some form of concealed-carry legislation, with a trend toward less restrictive legislation. After adjusting for state and year, there was no significant association between shifts from restrictive to nonrestrictive carry legislation on violent crime and public health indicators. Adjusting further for poverty and unemployment did not significantly influence the results.”
In other words, gun control is a ruse and does nothing to actually curb violent crime. However, we are constantly subject to misinformation from the gun control lobby. Likewise, none of them want to discuss actual facts and data. Which only makes it look like gun control is about something entirely different than what they are selling.
The study’s conclusion says it best, “This study demonstrated no statistically significant association between the liberalization of state level firearm carry legislation over the last 30 years and the rates of homicides or other violent crime. Policy efforts aimed at injury prevention and the reduction of firearm-related violence should likely investigate other targets for potential intervention.”
If they are serious about public health concerns regarding violent crime, it is time to start looking elsewhere. Failure to do so will only result in more violent crime.
The Importance of These DRGO Studies
As I mentioned, we are up against real disinformation coming from a very powerful media. It can be very hard to combat. However, with studies like these from DRGO, we have facts and data on our side. The gun control lobby can try to gaslight all they want. But, try as they might, they cannot change reality.
However, we are up against an adversary with no moral attachment to honesty. So, understanding the realities of legal firearm ownership is more important now than ever.
I’ll leave you with the words of SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb:
“DRGO is an important project of the Second Amendment Foundation, because anti-gun billionaires such as Michael Bloomberg are funding research that tries to portray guns and gun ownership as a disease.”
