They say you can’t make this stuff up, but that’s not entirely accurate. You can make it up, but why bother when the truth is crazy enough?
You’ve heard of the Giffords Law Center, the gun control group headed by former Congresswoman Gabriel “Gabby” Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt on Jan. 8, 2011, in a Tucson, Arizona suburb. Six people, including a child, were killed, but Giffords miraculously survived, though she is permanently disabled. Since recovering from the murder attempt, she has become a gun control advocate.
While Giffords’ personal story is worthy of sympathy, when the group named for her declares the state with the highest number of homicides as “Number 1” for firearms regulations, something is definitely haywire, if not completely off the rails. But that’s what happened a few weeks ago when the Giffords group released its annual gun law scorecard. California got an “A” grade, and surprise-of-surprises, there wasn’t a single mention of the Golden State’s 2023 body count: 1,929, according to Statista, a group that keeps tabs on slayings.
Neighboring Oregon got an “A-” from Giffords, and according to KOIN News in Portland, the Beaver State’s rating went up from a D+ over the years from 2014 to 2024. And here’s the reason: In Oregon, they posted 14.1 “gun deaths” for every 100,000 residents, and the state is considered by Giffords to have the 11th strongest gun laws in the country. Reason to celebrate, right?
Uh, not exactly. According to KOIN, “Researchers reported that this rate is about 2% higher than the national average.” Always nice to be above average, eh?
You guessed it, there’s more. On the Giffords website, there is a spot where a person can compare states, and already set up was a comparison between Massachusetts and Wyoming. The Bay State gets an “A,” and the Cowboy State gets an “F.” But before shedding too many tears about Wyoming’s poor showing, check with Statista. In 2023, Wyoming posted 18 murders, while Massachusetts logged 146 slayings. Where would you rather live?
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