Million Mom March 25 Years in the Past, Still Pushing Misinformation

The Million Mom March had just about faded from my memory. It wasn’t a million people, they weren’t all moms, and they really thought they were something special despite just pushing for the same tired policies that gun grabbers always want.

They were likely emboldened by the assault weapon ban that was passed in 1996, just a few years before the march, but they still wanted the same things.

Now, a quarter of a century later, I came across a participant in that march lamenting how little has been done to advance their goals.

But the Million Mom March was more than a protest. It was a collective outcry—stitched together by grief, fueled by hope, and driven by one belief: no child should die by gun violence. With Congress failing to act, mothers across the country rose up— angry, determined, demanding change.

I never imagined I would become an activist. But on April 20, 1999, I sat frozen in front of my TV, heart pounding, as the unthinkable unfolded at Columbine High School—my alma mater. My basketball coach, Dave Sanders, was killed along with twelve students.

Something inside me broke.

Without knowing the author, my guess is that her sense of sanity is what broke, because Columbine was proof positive that gun control doesn’t work.

This was during the era of the assault weapon ban. Both of the killers were minors who couldn’t buy guns lawfully and got around those prohibitions. They took guns to school, which was a gun-free zone. The gun control that was supposed to stop kids from shooting people failed.

And her answer was more of what didn’t work?

So yeah, I’m thinking her sense of sanity is what broke. I’m sure she’d disagree with that characterization, which is fine. Her opinion is meaningless to me.

However, let’s get into some specifics.

The Million Mom March was a tipping point. It sparked national conversations about gun laws and helped launch a lasting movement—it later merged with the Brady Campaign, amplifying the call for reform. The march also introduced life-saving initiatives like the ASK (Asking Saves Kids) campaign, which urges parents to ask one critical question before their child visits a friend’s home: Is there an unlocked gun in the house? It’s a simple question that can prevent tragedy. Each year, unintentional shootings injure or kill an average of 363 children in the U.S.

The Brady Campaign is also why people don’t want to answer that question, for the record.

It’s one thing to work toward actual gun safety, such as asking about unsecured firearms in the home. However, the Brady Campaign has never stopped with that. They’ve pushed every gun control law that has come down the line. They’ve worked with the media and Hollywood to stigmatize lawful gun owners, too. No one answers that question in part because they don’t want to be judged by other parents because they made a decision that isn’t politically popular.

Somehow, she doesn’t mention that.

Now, let’s get to the paragraph that triggered me.

Despite the progress, the crisis has grown worse. In 2000, about 28,000 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S.—a staggering number. Today, it’s soared to over 48,000 per year—132 lives taken every day. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and teens in America, surpassing car crashes, drownings, and cancer.

This is lying with statistics in a nutshell.

Yes, the number of people who died from “gun-related injuries” has gone up since 2000. 

However, let’s note a few things here. First, many of these are suicides, and I’m sick of people like the author pretending that suicides are the same as homicides or even unintentional shootings. They’re not. They’re a mental health issue that needs to be addressed separately because even without guns, suicides will still happen. In fact, a large portion of suicides don’t actually involve a firearm. It’s stupid to think you can just make that go away with a gun control law.

Now, what we know is that 2000 and 2024 were very different years. She neglects to mention that the homicide rate hit a low in 2014, well below where it was in 2000, nor does she mention that the population in 2000 was about 282 million people and today it’s over 340 million, meaning that even an increase in so-called gun deaths in raw numbers is actually less when you consider the per capita rate.

Now, let’s talk about the “children and teens” thing. This isn’t untrue. It’s just a misrepresentation of the data.

See, the studies that give us this “information” all count 18- and 19-year-olds as children. These are legal adults and are the prime age for criminality, as well as the ages most likely to escalate petty beefs into violence. They can’t legally buy handguns, of course, but they get them anyway, and they drive up the numbers.

When you omit these adults from the data, you find that the data shows other causes accounting for more child deaths than guns.

I’ll give the author credit for at least saying teens here, because a lot of people omit that, and one could easily argue that 18 and 19 are still teen years. Yet it still paints a disingenuous image of what’s happening.

The Million Mom March was premised on a false idea, that gun control was both necessary and it would work.

A quarter of a century later, they’re still pushing falsehoods.