Media blames ‘loosened restrictions on firearms’ for violence

Reporters for The New York Times drew criticism after they blamed gun deaths in Columbus, Ohio, on recent rollbacks of firearms regulations in the state.

The article pointed to a shooting death in Columbus based on a misunderstanding and attempted to link the incident to broader violence in the city. They blamed the incident on Republicans working to protect gun rights for law-abiding citizens.

It was an encounter emblematic of gun violence in America today, the reporters contended. It was an episode that exemplified a striking spread in fatal shootings nationwide since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020: a period in which Americans have purchased more guns, the Supreme Court has made them harder to regulate, and many states, including Ohio, have loosened restrictions on firearms.

The article noted that Ohio lawmakers had been scaling back gun regulations for several years: they stopped cities from passing their own gun restrictions in 2006, nixed a ban on high-capacity magazines in 2014, and enacted constitutional carry in 2022, ending the need for citizens to apply for a license before concealing their guns.

Yet the narrative crafted by The New York Times failed to clarify that the death they called emblematic of gun violence in America would not have been prevented by the laws the outlet had criticized, as noted in one analysis of the article for Reason.

The outlet also failed to note that overall violent crime in several cities, including Columbus, fell in the year after the constitutional carry law was enacted, as noted in a study released by Ohio Republican Attorney General David Yost.

The official said that the study was launched since mayors of multiple cities had blamed the new constitutional carry law for firearm crimes. This is not to downplay the very real problem of crime in many neighborhoods in our cities, Yost said in a press release about the study. The key takeaway from this study is that we have to keep the pressure on the criminals who shoot people, rather than Ohioans who responsibly exercise their Second Amendment rights.

Ohio became the twenty-third state to enact a constitutional carry bill when the law entered into effect. Florida, Nebraska, Louisiana, and South Carolina adopted similar laws in recent months, meaning residents do not need to apply for a carry permit.

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