Massive study by the Rand Corporation finds that NRA backed gun policies actually increase the number of gun homicides and violent crime. Quick, put on your surprised face.

Courtesy of WaPo:

The best available evidence suggests two major National Rifle Association gun policy prescriptions — what are known as “stand your ground” self-defense laws and permissive concealed carry laws — increase homicides and violent crime. 

That is according to a massive new study by the RAND Corporation, an independent think tank. The group's experts scoured thousands of academic papers on gun violence in an effort to make definitive statements about how gun policies affect crime and safety. They winnowed that list down to only the highest-quality studies — just 62 in total — containing evidence capable of establishing a causal link between a gun policy change and a specific outcome. 

Because the RAND researchers' criteria for including studies in their final analysis were rigorous, for the majority of policies and outcomes, there was not enough good research to make any definitive statements — a clear indication of how little we know about how to prevent gun violence. But there were notable exceptions.

There is moderate evidence, for instance, that “stand your ground” laws, which remove the requirement for gun owners to attempt to retreat from a situation before using lethal force, increase total rates of homicide. A 2013 study, for instance, found that states passing such laws saw 6 percent to 11 percent increases in their total homicide rate. Another study found that Florida experienced a significant 24 percent increase in total homicides and 32 percent increase in firearm homicides following enactment of the stand-your-ground law in 2005.

Gee, how completely unsurprising.

Now if you are relatively new to the whole gun debate question, you may be asking yourself why is there is so little research into the impact that guns have on our society, the answer to that is both simple and infuriating.

Courtesy of Vox:  

For decades, the federal government, with the support of the National Rifle Association, has made it very difficult to answer a question at the heart of American public health and safety: Does gun control work? 

The answer is hugely important given that guns killed nearly 39,000 Americans in 2016 alone. But after research on gun violence in the 1990s found that firearms do not — contrary to NRA talking points — make people safer, the group backed a federal funding freeze on gun policy research.

That's right ladies and gentlemen, the reason that the government does not have reams of well researched data to back up their policy decisions, is because the NRA recognized decades ago that having access to that data would undermine their mythology about more guns leading to less gun fatalities.

Guns kill. Period.

And more guns, kill more people. Period.

And the NRA actually know this, which is why they have spent millions to obstruct research. Once again, period.

I think one of the first things that the blue wave of Democrats coming into Congress and the Senate in 2018 need to do is to is thaw out that gun research freeze from the 90's, and start accumulating some real data to use in order to move forward with comprehensive new gun control legislation.