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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention affirms in a new report that America is not in the midst of a firearms violence crisis. Its most recent study on violence related to firearms says about 40,000 people died from gunshot wounds in 2018. That is about the same number as reported in 2017 – despite the national population growing by more than 2.3 million people.

With millions more people in the nation, the firearms violence numbers should rise to maintain pace with the prior year’ numbers. They did not. This means the rate of violence actually went down.

Unchanging firearms violence numbers has anti-gunners searching for a new narrative they can push so they can continue their efforts to ban firearms and erode Second Amendment rights.

It’s probably why anti-gun groups have shifted a bit to focus on suicide rates. Anti-gun organizations, many of whom are backed by Democrat presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s multi-billion-dollar fortune, are citing national suicide rates as the new reason to ban guns and erode Second Amendment rights.

Bloomberg is the financier of Everytown for Gun Safety, which financially backs anti-gun politicians at the state and local levels across the nation. The recent Virginia firearms legislation furor is a direct result of Bloomberg and Everytown’s anti-Trump and anti-gun efforts.

It is also an example of what Bloomberg has planned for the country if ever elected president.

A recent op-ed published by Bloomberg News, which is founded and owned by Bloomberg, and said they wouldn’t accurately cover Michael Bloomberg now that he has entered the Democrats race for the White House says the recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s is cause for alarm.

“Suicides by all means – firearm or other – have been rising for nearly two decades,” the opinion piece quotes said Daniel Webster, director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins University. The key phrase here is “suicides by all means.”

“Social isolation, economic hardship, alcohol and drug abuse, and cultural factors all play a role. Access to firearms has been a well-studied risk factor and there is a solid body of evidence linking firearm access and increased suicide risk. Effects are strong and consistent,” the Bloomberg piece quotes Webster.

Bloomberg and Webster are playing very fast and loose with the facts to push another false narrative claiming access to firearms directly corelates to a desire to commit suicide. The notion that, somehow, a firearm induces suicidal thought completely lacks merit.

How about social media being the culprit? The effect of seeing friends out without you. Or social media influencers creating false storylines about fabulous lives make others jealous? Or online bullying? The authors never considered this option, they just went straight to blaming guns. They also put up as much evidence blaming guns as I did blaming social media-ZERO.

A quick review of national and global suicide rates shows suicides have risen greatly across all nations and within the U.S. since 1999. Firearms deaths have not. The U.S. death rate from firearms, including suicides, remains roughly level — especially when accounting for population growth. That rate is about 10.87 deaths per 100,000 and has generally stayed unchanged over the last decade.

Meanwhile, the suicide rate has grown substantially during the same period. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the nation’s suicide death rate rose from about 10.5 percent in 1999 to 14 per 100,000 people. That is a 33 percent increase in the national suicide rate.

The national death rate from firearms does not show a 33 percent rise. It mostly remained level and did not increase despite the nation’s population rising. Suicide is a leading cause of death in virtually every nation. Clearly, firearms are not the cause of suicidal thoughts, and access does not increase suicide rates.