Thanksgiving in America isn’t just about food, family and football. According to a survey published by casino.ca (with its Great Thanksgiving Family Feud Map), the holiday typically “comes with a slice of family chaos and a touch of drama.” “[M]ost households experience at least 2 arguments over the holiday, and nearly half (44%) have seen someone storm out mid-debate,” with Thanksgiving Day tension most likely to reach the boiling point at the dinner table.
Seeking to add fuel to the family feud fires, Billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety has published its standard holiday gun-control infomercial, titled Debunking Gun Myths at the Dinner Table. The objective is to “fork over the facts” and “[h]elp educate the people in your life” by spreading anti-gun propaganda during the holiday celebration. (People can even “download and share the graphics on social media,” in case family and friends resist being “educated” while trying to enjoy their pumpkin pie.)
What is being “forked over,” though, has as much to do with facts as tofurkey has to do with real turkey.
Let’s highlight just a few of these so-called “myths” and “facts:”
“Myth: Criminals will always find a way to get their hands on a gun. Fact: Laws like background checks stop gun sales to criminals every day. Since 1994, these laws have blocked more than 5 million gun sales to people who could not legally own guns.” Essentially, the argument is that federal background checks and other federal laws are great at stopping criminals from getting guns, unless it’s in Chicago (see below). The reality, as federal studies show, is that the vast majority of criminals aren’t inhibited by federal laws, as they don’t obtain their guns from legal sources that involve them undergoing a background check.
“Myth: Strong gun laws don’t work. Look at Chicago. Fact: Chicago proves why we must push for strong federal gun laws. Many of the crime guns recovered in Chicago and in other cities in states with strong gun violence prevention laws are trafficked from states with weaker gun laws.” Having been assured already that federal laws do prevent criminals from getting guns, it seems inapposite to “push for strong federal gun laws.” Illinois, too, has an A-rating from gun-control group Giffords for having “some of the strongest gun laws in the country.” Guns, though, aren’t flitting over state borders by themselves. They also aren’t causing Chicago-like crime spikes in neighboring states or even in other parts of Illinois. (When the crime statistics for the state were recalculated after excluding the Chicago metropolitan area, the result was a 55% decrease in the Illinois homicide rate.) If it’s a myth that “criminals will always find a way to get their hands on a gun,” weaker gun laws in other states shouldn’t matter in a jurisdiction with “strong gun violence prevention laws.”
“Myth: The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Fact: If more guns everywhere made us safer, America would be the safest country on earth. Instead, we have a gun homicide rate 26 times that of other high-income countries.” There’s a mismatch between these two parts, as we’re left waiting to learn how we should stop a bad guy with a gun. It’s clear, though, that defensive gun uses by “good guys,” people lawfully armed, are responsible for saving lives and preventing crimes every day, including instances where concealed handgun permit holders have stopped what would have otherwise been mass public shootings. As for the United States and how it compares to other countries, Dr. John Lott’s Crime Prevention Research Center has found that the United States ranks below average on firearm homicide rates across countries, even though “many countries that clearly have higher gun homicide rates than the United States… simply don’t report firearm homicide data.”
“Myth: Federal law prohibits ALL domestic abusers from having guns. Fact: Federal law does not prohibit current or recent former dating partners subject to a domestic violence restraining order from purchasing or possessing guns. And, domestic abusers with access to a gun are 5 times more likely to kill their female victims.” The federal law on guns and domestic violence restraining orders uses the term “intimate partner.” Besides spouses (past or present), it covers dating relationships where the parties are or were ever cohabitants, or who have a child together. In addition, anyone convicted of a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” is prohibited, under federal law, from acquiring or possessing a firearm, and this includes anyone convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence against a current or recent former dating partner (where the ban expires after five years). The study that Everytown cites for its statistic actually points out that a “victim’s access to a gun could plausibly reduce her risk of being killed,” and gun control laws that make a gun more difficult to obtain disarm victims of domestic abuse and stalking.
And the last, the worst, “myth:” “Having a gun for self-defense makes individuals and their families safer. Fact: Guns in the home increase the risk that anyone in the house, including children, will die by firearm suicide, homicide, or unintentional injuries.” No doubt the elderly victim of a recent high-profile home invasion would disagree, as would millions of others who have had to resort to a firearm to protect themselves, their families and their homes. A Pew Research Center report (2023) found that nearly three out of four gun owners cited protection as the reason to have a firearm, with 47% of non-gun owners stating they could imagine themselves owning a gun in the future. Statistics from the National Shooting Sports Association bear that out: since 2020, a reported 26.2 million law-abiding Americans have supported the Second Amendment in the most direct way possible, by becoming new, first-time gun owners. Not only does this number exceed the population of the State of Florida, but this “surge of new first-time buyers has made the gun-owning community the most diverse population of gun owners ever,” with African American women being the fastest growing demographic.
This drastic escalation hasn’t coincided with a corresponding leap in gun-related deaths from preventable, intentional, and undetermined causes in the home. The National Safety Council (NSC), which tracks such injury-related deaths “in the home and on home premises to occupants, guests, and trespassers” across America, reports that in 2023 (the latest year available) firearms posed the lowest risk by far of all categories the NSC accounts for. There were 400 deaths due to firearms across all age groups; in contrast, poisonings accounted for 77,000 deaths, falls for 32,000, fires/flames for 3,100, and choking for 3,000.
Guns in America have a long association with Thanksgiving. The NRA Museum describes an Italian-made wheellock carbine that was traced to John Alden, “who brought it over on the Mayflower and had it in his possession during our nation’s first Thanksgiving in 1621.” Alden undoubtedly “hunted with it and perhaps used it to kill a wild turkey” for the feast that we now celebrate as Thanksgiving, and “we know [the gun] was kept to defend the young colony.”
As we gather this year to enjoy family, food, and festivities, we should remember to give thanks for our freedom – the liberty we all share, regardless of how many other things we may disagree on.
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