J.D. Vance dismisses red flag laws; says the term "gun violence problem " is inaccurate

Is this guy even living on the same planet as the rest of us?

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In Washington, a bipartisan group of Senators appears to be on the cusp of a gun reform deal. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has even given his blessing to the framework, but a bit closer to home, Ohio’s Republican U.S. Senate nominee J.D. Vance says he wouldn’t vote for it.

“From what I’ve seen of this bill, I would not support it,” Vance said Wednesday on a Breitbart radio show. “I think the red flag laws, in particular, they certainly are a slippery slope. They also don’t solve the problem of gun violence.”

(snip)

Vance conceded that the U.S. has a “high gun violence rate,” but pinned the problem on what he termed urban inner-city crime. He argued violence has been coming down for the last 30 years despite guns being more available.

“So, in some ways it’s not even accurate to call it a gun violence problem,” Vance said. “It is a violence problem that has gotten worse over the last few years, not because of more guns, but because of negative law enforcement.”

(snip)

A report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, meanwhile, found that states with the highest gun death rates, “tend to be rural states in the South or West with weaker gun laws.” The report notes the five states with the lowest rates have licensing or waiting period provisions for gun purchases and some form of extreme risk protection order, which are commonly referred to as red flag laws.

The majority of gun related deaths in the U.S. are suicides, and a study of Connecticut’s red flag laws suggests those provisions avert one suicide for every 10 to 20 firearm seizures.

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/06/16/j-d-vance-voices-opposition-to-senate-gun-reform-framework/