Massachusetts – -(AmmoLand.com)- Massachusetts has a fairly robust population of people that own firearms for being a socialist pinko strong-hold. The last statistic I read was that about 6% of the population are License to Carry holders. That’s not that bad, given the odds that Bay Staters are up against. The Gun Owners Action League (GOAL) recently put out a release concerning some murder statistics in the land of the Pilgrims, a place where “witches” hung from ropes for just being different (Their tolerant ways seem to have carried on into modern times).
2020 Massachusetts Department of Public Health Report on Deaths Still Reflects the Commonwealth’s Gun Laws are an Unmitigated Disaster!
On Thursday, October 27, 2022, Gun Owners’ Action League (GOAL) released a report reflecting a nearly two-fold increase in gun related homicides in Massachusetts. The report included data taken directly from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Injury Surveillance Program (ISP). The report breaks down gun deaths in the Commonwealth into three categories: Homicides, Suicides, and Accidental deaths.
The report states that the gun control measures in the Bay State have been abject failures. Looking at the numbers, it’s hard to say those measures haven’t been failures, or at least they have not attributed to a decrease in murders. In 1998, there were 63 gun-related homicides. Contrast that to 2020s 133. The number for 2020 broke the former high record since 98, which was 132 in 2011. Congratulations to Massachusetts for having the most murders you’ve seen in over two decades.
Jim Wallace, the Executive Director of GOAL, had a few things to say about this staggeringly high number, “What just jumps off the page is the more than doubling of gun-related homicides since the passage of the 1998 Gun Control Act.” Wallace continued, “For more than two decades, we have constantly heard that Massachusetts is leading the nation in ‘common sense’ gun control laws. Using the State’s own data, we are proving that is simply a false and dangerous narrative.”
The report does note a silver lining that there was a 13% decrease in people dying by suicide by firearm during the same period. However, the report noted that the small gain was “…greatly overshadowed by the drastic increase in hanging/suffocation suicides of approximately 63%. This is a fact we tried to ram home during the Red Flag Law debates in 2018. This information was completely ignored, and the law’s supporters blocked any debate on adding mental health assistance to the bill.”
Using the State’s own data, the report reflects an 111% increase in gun related homicides since 1998. Gun related suicides are down a few points, but that marginal success is outweighed by a huge increase in suicide by hanging/suffocation. Virtually no gains have been made in accidental gun deaths as those numbers were so minuscule already.
It is GOAL’s hope that the legislature will finally see what this so-called, gun control effort for what it really is. An affront to our Second Amendment civil rights. There is absolutely no way to justify what has been done to the Second Amendment Community in the name of “safety”. One of the first things the legislature needs to address in the next legislative session is a complete revamp of the State’s gun laws in a manner that respects our community’s civil rights. Further, the political leadership needs to start addressing the human criminal element head on and the growing mental health crisis.
It’s not convenient when the numbers that are delivered are so grim.
We do need to account for some changes in the Commonwealth in the nearly 25 years that have passed. There was about a 11% difference in the population of Massachusetts from 1998 to 2020. Even if we account for the extra 750,000 residents, and adjust the number based on the current population, the 1998 number would be 70 homicides. The 2020 number is still nearly double the amount of murders, showing a 93.1% increase.
While these numbers are telling, they do only paint a partial picture of what might be going on in Massachusetts. Regardless of other causal factors and the like, my colleague Cam Edwards over at Bearing Arms reported nearly a year ago within a few days, that a study found that Massachusetts so-called gun control laws didn’t lower crime. His sentiments are worth repeating given both the statistics and season we’re presently in.
Sounds to me like the “issue” is that restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens is never going to be an effective way of combatting violent crime, and the data proves the point. Robberies are going up when the law is being “properly applied and enforced,” not down. You’d think that alone would make Iwama pause before deciding that the problem is “neighboring states with looser gun laws” or a lack of enforcement in Massachusetts itself. Even when the data shows that gun control laws are a failure, though, gun control advocates insist that the problem is that there aren’t enough laws on the books or they just need to be better enforced somehow.
The authoritarian impulse to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms has already cost the state countless residents who’ve fled for greener pastures, as well as companies like Smith & Wesson who are pulling up stakes and relocating their corporate headquarters and much of their manufacturing to states that don’t view them as villains. Now the research shows in addition to the drain on population and tax dollars, these unconstitutional power grabs aren’t even effective in stopping violent criminals. That won’t come as a surprise to many gun owners, but I hope it spurs some Massachusetts voters to ask themselves if the loss of freedom, revenue, personal security, and public safety was really worth it.
With an election right around the corner, the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have an opportunity to act on Cam’s question, if the Utopia they’ve created is worth it, directly at the polls. As much as I’m cheering for both Jay McMahon for Attorney General, and Geoff Diehl for Governor, I don’t know how unscathed the people of the Commonwealth are going to be coming out the other side. We’ll be watching both races carefully, along with the crime statistics going forward. Politics aside, 93.1% or 111% (depending on which number you want to lean on) in murder increases, are nothing to scoff at.