By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A new report appearing online at the website of the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), confirms what TGM reported earlier this month, that passage of so-called “constitutionally carry” in Ohio did not have the dramatic negative effect predicted by anti-gunners who opposed the law.
The AMAC report, authored by freelance writer Shane Harris, looked at other states and found similar results, which the establishment media appears to have ignored. A quick look at other constitutional carry states reinforces the argument that the “blood-in-the-streets” forecast is a liberal myth.
Alabama is one example, which is described as “among the worst per capita for gun violence,” reportedly defied predictions of for gun-related violence. There was a “modest drop” in gun-related deaths in 2023 from the previous year, 1,141 last year opposed to 1,277 in 2022.
Florida last year experienced an overall 10 percent decrease in so-called “gun violence” even though permitless carry took effect only at mid-year (July 1, 2023).
Neighboring Georgia saw constitutional carry go into effect in April 2022. During 2021, the report says, Georgia posted 2,200 gun-related deaths, but last year, the body count dropped to 1,897.
Ohio Study Shows Crime Decrease After ‘Constitutional Carry’
Counter that with the experience in Washington State. In 2014, state voters approved gun control Initiative 594 after a $10.2 million campaign bankrolled by wealthy Seattle elites. The following year (2015) showed there were 209 murders in the state, including 141 involving firearms, according to that year’s FBI Uniform Crime Report. In 2018, voters approved a second gun control initiative, with more restrictions.
In 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, Washington posted 394 homicides, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC). That organization’s report may be read here.
Following release of the WASPC data, the Washington-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said the report “showing a 96 percent increase in homicides since 2019 is damning proof that billionaire-backed gun control measures were, as we predicted, false pie-in-the-sky promises.”
At the time, CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb noted in a prepared statement, “And we’re more than one year out from passage of a ban on so-called ‘large-capacity magazines,’ which was a pet project of Democrat Attorney General Bob Ferguson. Guess what, murders went up (in 2022) by 16.6 percent over 2021.”
“While the billionaires who bankrolled both initiatives were saying these measures would reduce crime,” Gottlieb recalled, “we were telling people the truth, and the WASPC report vindicates our arguments. WASPC says last year’s 394 murders is the highest number of homicides recorded by the group since 1980.
“At this point,” Gottlieb said, “it is fair to ask what good has any of these laws accomplished? These gun control measures have only helped make people less safe, and it should be clear to voters they’ve been deceived by the gun prohibition lobby, which will no doubt try to spin the new report to suggest even stricter measures are necessary.”
