After decades of decline, the upstate New York city is routinely neglected by state and federal leaders.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week that the number of gun-related murders in 2020 was the highest since 1994. Gun purchases also reached record levels that year, but the CDC noted that its findings “do not support causal inferences” because studies have not established a direct link between more gun sales and more gun violence.
Unfortunately, much of the media commentary surrounding the horrific shootings last weekend in my hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., is infused with causal inferences. A young man fueled by racial hatred stands accused of traveling 200 miles just to kill black people. A shocked and sickened nation is mourning because his actions are so unrepresentative of who we are as Americans in the third decade of the 21st century.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Wall Street Journal (paywall)
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. He is the author of the recent book “The Black Boom.”
This piece originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal