When the Streets Don’t ‘Run Red With Blood’

When I first got involved in gun rights oh-so-many years ago, I remember hearing anti-gunners make claims about how “the streets will run red with blood” should some pro-gun measure pass. That was a literal quote at the time, and it stuck with me over the years.

While the exact wording changes from time to time, the sentiment remains. Gun control advocates routinely claim that without some law, violence will take hold and we’ll have blood everywhere.

That kind of stuck with me over the years, and it came up again when Rob Romano posted this on X.

Remember how anti-gunners kept saying that 18-20-year-olds in Minnesota would cause tons of crime if they could get carry permits, and then the state was forced to issue them because it lost a lawsuit and nothing bad happened

— Rob Romano (@2Aupdates) June 22, 2025

Exactly.

And honestly, there are countless other examples, too.

I remember hearing the same when the assault weapon ban sunset in 2004. I remember hearing that when constitutional carry started passing in numerous places. I hear the same when Bruen killed “may issue” permitting once and for all.

Time and time again, gun control advocates use the fear of “what if” to push their preferred legislation to the forefront. They claim it will save lives, and when it doesn’t, the issue is that the law didn’t go far enough. 

Meanwhile, when some bit of pro-gun legislation works its way through, they claim some variation of the streets running red with blood, and when that doesn’t happen, suddenly there’s a ton of nuance that most of us are just too ignorant to understand.

And let’s understand that most of the time, those are the two options. Gun control doesn’t work, and the studies that claim it does can all be debunked pretty easily. They’re not even clever about it because the biased media won’t poke at them too much. They’ll just repeat what the claim is without any critical thinking.

But the truth is that every time they say horrible things will happen, they don’t.

I try to be honest. When things improve after gun rights wins, I don’t automatically say our win is the result. I don’t because I understand that things are more complicated than that.

What I will do, though, is poke at the lies about how the other side claimed all hell was going to break loose, only for it not to. Again.

What Romano noted above isn’t a one-time thing. It’s a common pattern we’ve all seen time and time again.

I’d like to say that sooner or later, anti-gunners and the media (but I repeat myself) are going to have to acknowledge that, but one should never underestimate the ability of True Believers and charlatains alike to ignore reality when it’s inconvenient to what they truly want to achieve.

The streets may someday run red with blood. I hope it doesn’t, but I’m too realistic to think otherwise.

What won’t be the cause, though, is some new pro-gun law going into effect or some gun control law disappearing for whatever reason.