Many people have begun to politicize the Las Vegas attacks, with many using it to push their pro gun-control agenda. Instead of having an intellectual debate, some have begun saying that Republicans simply don’t care about the victims if they do not ideologically agree with them.

Not only is this rhetoric not useful, but it is decisive.

The basis of their argument is quite simple, if less guns are available, there will be less overall violence and mass murder events will become less frequent because of less available weapons for criminals to use.

Does this reflect reality though?

Firstly, forming policy based on isolated incidents is often times, unwise. Laws should be consistent and not emotionally driven from tragic events. These mass shooting events are horrible of course and we should be mourning the Americans who have fallen in this evil act. But, we should remember that they tend to be minority of the total homicides. According to Mother Jones, in 2015, they compromised a miniscule 0.3%, accounting for 46 total deaths!

In this mass shooting, the worst one in American history, there would so far be 59 deaths. This would be the same as the murder rate per month this year in Chicago, one of the most heavy-regulated cities in the entire country in terms of guns.

The chart below, comprised by the FBI and Census calculates the murder rate by state compared to the gun ownership rate in 2014. From it, we can conclude there is little to no correlation between the two. It seems a lot of it is regional and cultural rather.

Another chart that has been circulating tells a different picture however.

It seems as if there is a direct correlation between the two… until you consider what is being graphed. This chart calculates total gun deaths meaning it would be heavily skewed by things like suicide, which is the majority of gun deaths. This is as, it is often the most convenient, as sad it is to say, to kill yourself with a gun as opposed to other “solutions.”

From this data, it seems evident that at the least there is little correlation between gun control laws and actual violent crime rate. All this would do is take the weapons of law abiding citizens who use them as tools of defense while doing little against crime.