Recent reports touting greatly reduced “mass shootings” in the United States this year have many pundits shaking their heads, since no meaningful gun control laws were passed during that same period. According to gun-ban advocates, of course, passing such laws is the only way to decrease criminal violence.
Ironically, on the same weekend the lower number of mass murders was being reported, a leading gun-ban advocate in the U.S. Senate took to the media to blame President Donald Trump for “increased” violence.
First, however, let’s look at the reduced mass murders. The Newsweek headline tells the story: “Mass Killings Plummeted in 2025, Despite No New Gun Control Laws.” The story goes on to report that, using numbers from the Mass Killings Database led by Northeastern University in collaboration with USA Today and the Associated Press, such killings of four or more people were the lowest since 2006, just 17, using that criterion.
Of course, the news outlet was quick to point out that the number will probably increase next year, despite lacking data to support that claim.
“We had a spike after the pandemic, and we’re now back at pre-COVID levels,” James Alan Fox, a research professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern told Newsweek. “But that doesn’t mean we’re safe.”
Now for the ironic part. As Newsweek touted the reduced number of mass murders, gun-hating Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, launched an attack on President Trump, accusing him of engaging in a campaign to increase violence in the country since taking office.
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Murphy responded to the recent murders at Brown University in which two students were killed, and nine others were injured.
“…this is not shocking because, over the last year, President Trump has been engaged in a dizzying campaign to increase violence in this country,” Sen. Murphy said on the program. “He is restoring gun rights to felons and people who have lost their ability to buy guns. He eliminated the White House Office of Gun Violence Protection, and he has stopped funding mental health grants and community anti-gun violence grants that Republicans and Democrats supported in that 2022 bill.”
Sen. Murphy then continued: “So he has been engaged in a pretty deliberate campaign to try to make violence more likely in this country. And I think you’re, unfortunately, going to see the results of that on the streets of America.”
The two widely varying reports—mass shootings down substantially and Trump causing more violence—are interesting in that it’s impossible for gun-ban advocates like Sen. Murphy to ever admit that criminal violence might be falling without all of their pet proposals being made law. If Sen. Murphy and other anti-gun advocates would stop long enough to take a look around, they would see that this first year of President Trump’s second term has yielded a safer America—even without any help from them.
