Last week one of the liberal media’s most persistent gun-control websites came out with yet another brilliant idea for reducing gun violence and got it all wrong. Not just a little bit wrong. All wrong.

              I’m referring to a piece in Vox written by one of their gun experts, German Lopez, who has decided that the way that guns are licensed in Massachusetts is a template that could and should be followed in every other state. There’s no question, according to Lopez, that the way Massachusetts goes about licensing state residents to buy or own guns is the best and most effective gun-control system around.

              Here’s how the Massachusetts system works, according to the intrepid journalist from Vox. He refers to this system as “requiring a license to buy and own a firearm.” Note the singular – i.e., firearm, okay?

              And here’s what the Massachusetts system supposedly involves: “a multi-step process involving interviews with police, background checks, a gun safety training course, and more. Even if a person passes all of that, the local police chief can deny an application anyway. That creates more points at which an applicant can be identified as too dangerous to own a gun; it makes getting and owning a gun harder.”

              Note again the reference to owning one gun. And how well does this system work in reducing gun violence? “Massachusetts, for one,” says Lopez, “has the lowest rate of gun deaths in the country.”

              I happen to live in Massachusetts. I happen to own a gun store in Massachusetts. I happen to have taught the gun-safety course to more than 7,000 residents of Massachusetts and Connecticut who then maybe went back home and applied for a gun license either to the town chief (MA) or the State Police (CT). Once a resident in ether state ireceives a license, he can walk into a gun shop and buy every gun in the place. Not just one gun. Every gun.

              Now note Lopez’s comment that Massachusetts has the ‘lowest rate of gun deaths of any state in the United States. That’s true. It also happens to be true that the state’s gun-violence rate has been among the lowest of all states since the law covering gun licensing referred to by Lopez was passed in 1999.

              There’s only one little problem. Before Massachusetts passed the gun-licensing law that Lopez believes should be adopted in all 50 states, Massachusetts not only had a very low gun-violence rate, but the rate was significantly lower than after the new law was put into effect. Duhhh.

              From 1981 through 1999, Massachusetts had a gun-death rate of 1.73, only 6 states (HI, IA, MD, MN, SD, VT) had lower rates. Since 1999, only Hawaii has had a gun-violence rate slightly lower than the Massachusetts rate.

              But here’s the point: The gun death-rate in MA has almost doubled since the state passed what Lopez believes is a very effective gun law. Indeed, the national gun-violence rate has also just about doubled since 1999.

              So, what does the Massachusetts gun law have to do with reducing the gun-violence rate in my state?  It has nothing to do with it because the rate hasn’t gone down, it’s gone up.

              If you look at the map of state-by-state gun-violence rates which Lopez attaches to his article, you’ll notice that other than California, all the low GV states are in the Northeast. With the exception of Maine, where nobody lives anyway, the Northeast states (NY, NJ, MA, CT, RI) happen to be the states with the lowest rates of gun ownership.

              Gee – what a surprise! States where a healthy majority of residents don’t own guns are not only states with the lowest gun-violence rates, but also are states which have the strongest gun-control laws.

              If German Lopez really wants to understand how and why the United States has a national gun-violence rate that has basically increased by 100% in the last twenty years, he would sit down, take a serious look at the evidence, and withdraw his latest hot-air missive published by Vox.

              And if I want to lose some weight, I’d stop eating those Pringles before I go to bed.

Welcome To The NRA: Weisser, Michael R.: 9798505387108: Amazon.com: Books.