In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of junk floating out there in the gun debate. I’m not just talking about name-calling, poisoning the well, or other nasty rhetorical business practiced by both sides. I’m talking about the statistical garbage that gets in the way of any halfway decent debate on gun violence in America.

Tidy charts crisscrossing leading social media outfits hide misleading information quite well, and sadly substitute for statistical analysis in fact-free comment exchanges and Twitter hot takes.