…we (scientists, all!) prefer to offer some truth — about guns — and gun violence.

Mr. Hinderaker thinks some vague, but sinister, federal conspiracy is behind the fact that ammo is scarce in his neck of the woods, in Minnesota.

The reality is — in fact — gun-nuts more rabid than he are buying up everything in sight, as they fear responsible regulation of ammo is coming.

And they are probably right.

Meanwhile, rather than dignifying the conspiracy theory with an “on merits” response, I’ll point to (and quote a bit of) a great piece in The New York Times (do click to read it all) this morning — on the disturbing facts about guns in the homes of America:

. . . .But there is a more fundamental problem with the idea that guns actually protect the hearth and home. Guns rarely get used that way. In the 1990s, a team headed by Arthur Kellermann of Emory University looked at all injuries involving guns kept in the home in Memphis, Seattle and Galveston, Tex. They found that these weapons were fired far more often in accidents, criminal assaults, homicides or suicide attempts than in self-defense. For every instance in which a gun in the home was shot in self-defense, there were seven criminal assaults or homicides, four accidental shootings, and 11 attempted or successful suicides.

The cost-benefit balance of having a gun in the home is especially negative for women, according to a 2011 review by David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. Far from making women safer, a gun in the home is “a particularly strong risk factor” for female homicides and the intimidation of women.

In domestic violence situations, the risk of homicide for women increased eightfold when the abuser had access to firearms, according to a study published in The American Journal of Public Health in 2003. Further, there was “no clear evidence” that victims’ access to a gun reduced their risk of being killed. Another 2003 study, by Douglas Wiebe of the University of Pennsylvania, found that females living with a gun in the home were 2.7 times more likely to be murdered than females with no gun at home. . . .

That’s the reality Mr. Hinderaker will bob-and-weave, from now until next Christmas — to avoid. But it is reality — just the same.