The Gun Violence Archive (GVA) stretches the definition of a “mass shooting” until it is no longer recognizable. With its deeply flawed data cited by Murthy, this plague is out of control.
The surgeon general attempted to explain his reasoning.
“While mass shooting deaths represent only about 1% of all firearm-related deaths in the U.S., the number of mass shooting incidents is increasing. According to data published by Gun Violence Archive, the U.S. experienced more than 600 mass shooting incidents each year between 2020 and 2023, compared to an average of less than 400 annual mass shooting incidents between 2015 and 2018.”
The harsh reality is that it is a gross exaggeration that only benefits those who seek to suppress gun rights. The GVA is the source of record for these forces as it created a rubric for classifying an incident as a mass shooting that contradicts accepted law enforcement standards.
Look no further than 2019, when the GVA said the U.S. suffered 417 of these tragic incidents, or more than one per day.
By the FBI’s more reasonable standards, there were 30.
Understand that 30 is far too many, and the goal of every Second Amendment supporter is for that total to be zero. But 417 is astronomically larger than 30 and is simply fodder for anti-gun propaganda.
And this is what Murthy relied on to declare gun violence a public health crisis.
These obvious misstatements are hardly isolated. The administration uses these false and misleading numbers to drum up support for everything from banning so-called “assault rifles” to red flag laws that trample on due process rights.
A USA Today editorial in 2023 quoted the president as claiming there had been over 650 mass shootings since the Buffalo rampage. The source? The Gun Violence Archive.
After criminals disrupted the Kansas City Super Bowl celebration with murderous gunfire, the White House claimed that there had been “more mass shootings in 2024 than there have been days in the year.”
And now a crisis has been declared.
This is despite the 2020 surge in violent crime receding to levels seen before the pandemic lockdowns and social unrest. By tagging the crime problem as a public health crisis, supporters of stringent gun control seek to force even more new laws and restrictions on the public that will not address the real issue.
Murthy used the occasion to call for banning automatic weapons, implementing universal background checks, even more regulations and oversight of the weapons industry, more restrictions on firearms in public areas and punishments for those who do not store their weapons in a manner approved by the government.
Not a single word about criminals who misuse guns.
Every one of these demands could be easily countered with facts that tear apart the government’s position. For example, automatic weapons are virtually nonexistent as they had to be manufactured before 1986 and require a laundry list of actions to be legally possessed.
Many others show that Murthy’s demands are nothing more than a rehash of the same tired tropes used against law-abiding Americans who exercise their right to self-defense.
The good news is that the surgeon general is not a dictator and cannot rule by fiat. Especially with recent Supreme Court decisions, his demands must still work through the constitutionally mandated legislative process, which means the involvement of lawmakers who theoretically should listen to the people.
That’s the very reason the Constitution and Bill of Rights were written — to protect the people from an overzealous government.
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