Tipsheet

Reality Check: Guns Sales Up, Crimes Committed With Guns Down

Earlier this week, Michael Bloomberg's new anti-gun Everytown released a bogus report claiming since Newtown in December 2013, 74 school shootings have taken place. The report was so bogus, even CNN went out of the way, twice, to correct the record. More from Ed Morrissey:

For the second time in two days, CNN went out of its way to debunk the Michael Bloomberg/Barack Obama claim that mass shootings have become epidemic and a “new normal” in American society. The day after CNN debunked the Bloomberg-funded Everytown claim that there were 74 Newtown-style mass shootings since Sandy Hook, Jake Tapper interviewed Northeastern University criminology professor James Alan Fox to look at the data rather than the anecdotes. Over a 40-year period, Fox concluded, mass shootings have remained flat — even while the population of the country has grown significantly over the same period.

Since we're on the topic of "gun violence," it's never a bad time for a reality check. The fact is, as lawful gun sales have increased, crimes carried out with a firearm have decreased. A majority of people think violent crimes carried out with firearms have increased over the past 20 years. They haven't, but instead have been cut in half. This video from the National Shooting Sports Foundation break down the numbers:


In the words of John Lott: More guns. Less crime.