Over the weekend, CNN reported on gun control laws passed so far in 2022, adding this reference, “There is a direct correlation in states with weaker gun laws and higher rates of gun deaths, including homicides, suicides and accidental killings, according to a January study published by Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit focused on gun violence prevention.”
However, an article in the Keene Sentinel, a newspaper serving southwest New Hampshire, reveals a small problem with Everytown’s research that might raise an eyebrow, if not some serious questions. Headlined “New Hampshire paradox: State gun laws remain loose as violence rate remains low,” the story’s lead paragraph tells a different tale.
“National rankings indicate New Hampshire has some of the weakest gun laws in the nation, and yet the state also maintains a low rate of firearm violence,” the newspaper says.
The report also quotes State Senate President Chuck Morse (R-Salem), who told the newspaper’s editorial board recently that gun-related violence is a problem of people, not guns.
“I don’t believe it’s a gun problem because look at New Hampshire.,” Morse reportedly stated. “We have more guns than probably any other state per capita. We have open carry, we passed constitutional carry, and we’re one of the safest states in the nation.”
The spin from gun prohibitionists is that New Hampshire “may be benefitting from firearm restrictions in nearby states and that violence statistics are open to interpretation.”
In New Hampshire, according to the article, “The average proportion of adults living in a home with a firearm between 2007 and 2016 in New Hampshire was 39 percent, compared to about 30 percent nationally, according to a Rand Corp. study.”
Underscoring New Hampshire’s contrary-to-the-gun-control-narrative statistics, the Giffords Law Center gives New Hampshire an “F” for the strength of its gun regulations.
It’s not just the Granite State giving fits to the gun control crowd. The New York Times published a story over the weekend about armed teachers that spread across the Internet.
According to the Times, training volunteer teachers and administrators “is fiercely opposed by Democrats, police groups, teachers’ unions and gun control advocates, who say that concealed carry programs in schools — far from solving the problem — will only create more risk.
“Past polling,” the story notes, “has shown that the vast majority of teachers do not want to be armed.”
Teachers are not being compelled to carry guns, a fact that seems to escape most reports about this project. Only volunteers, whose participation is anonymous—that is, they are not identified as being armed on campus—go through the training.
It is no surprise Democrats, gun control groups and teachers’ unions don’t care for the program. They are traditionally anti-gun even without such a school safety option.
As for law enforcement opposition, after Uvalde, their objection may not get much traction.
The newspaper acknowledged there has been limited research on whether armed teacher programs have been effective. There have been no reports of mass school shootings occurring on school campuses where visitors often see signs saying armed staff are present.
