“There are lies, d*** lies, and statistics.” Mark Twain attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli.

It is a fundamental principle of government. Consider the BATFE or ATF. And consider one of the BATFE’s allies in their effort to disarm Americans, a useful idiot named Samuel Stebbins of a “financial publication” called 24-7 Wall St.

Stubbins writes that BATFE data claims that in every state, there is at least one city that appears to account for a disproportionate share of crimes involving a firearm.

This does indeed seem to be true. Look at our home State.

The ATF traced a total of 832 firearms in South Dakota in 2021. Of those, 446, or 53.6%, of all guns traced in the state were linked to crimes in Rapid City. Meanwhile, Rapid City accounts for only 8.4% of the state’s total population, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey. Sioux Falls accounted for the second largest share of firearm tracings in the state in 2021, at 13.3%, while Box Elder ranked third, accounting for 4.1% of all firearms traced by the ATF that year. Sioux Falls and Box Elder make up 21.5% and 1.3% of South Dakota’s total population, respectively.

It is this kind statistical lies that governments and their supporters love. Rapid City and Sioux Falls, of course, are the two largest cities in South Dakota. South Dakota, with a population of almost 900,000 (with more than 77,000 square miles: less than 12 people per square mile), is a rural and fairly peaceful state. Box Elder, home to Ellsworth Air Force Base, is in essence a suburb of Rapid City.

Stebbins implies that the gun violence is out of control and caused in part by liberal attitudes towards gun ownership and gun carrying in the State. He conveniently leaves out any true analysis: the source of violence in the two largest cities of South Dakota is due in large part to some very simple reasons that have nothing to do with gun laws. (A subject for a future commentary: suffice to say that gang and drug violence account for most of this: exported from larger urban areas and from the failed and collapsed societies of reservations.)

This supposed “data reporter” supposedly covers “news and finance” for this publication, but clearly devotes most of his writing to hoplophobic and hoploclastic topics (gun fear and gun hate). From New York, he writes about areas he clearly knows little or nothing about, but he has a blowtorch to spread his lies. Because the lies are needed and wanted.

Yet another example of statistics lies – and just plain lies – is found in Sunday’s MSN story about Alabama allowing constitutional (concealed) carry. The story decried that “HALF” of US States now allow people to carry pistols (handguns) without permits. Among other lies, it claimed that in 2010 only two States allowed people to carry without permits. (Only two States may have allowed concealed carry without a permit in 2010, but three dozen States did not require permits to openly carry in 2021, of which at least half (18 or so) did not require that a decade earlier.)

Because of the uptick in crime and gun wounds and deaths in the last two years (attributed by many of us to the Pandemic Panic and lockdown), the media seeks to create fear about every State that returns to constitutional law regarding weapons. Claims are made that “weakened” gun laws which allow people to own and carry weapons without a permission slip cause crime rates to go up.

Lies serve a purpose, and for decades we have been fed lies by politicians and governments and media and activists – all enemies of liberty. Why? Because to quote Jesus of Nazareth, “the truth shall make you free.” These liars do not want us to be free – and they want to take what liberty we do have away from us, and getting us to believe lies does that.

Freedom can exist only when truth prevails and lies are challenged and refuted.