This is not just a great gotcha on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, which starts on Monday in Philadelphia and will be chock full of apocalyptic speechifying about a non-existent “epidemic” of gun violence. It’s an understated guide to just how politicized things get, especially around convention seasons. Each party will exploit similar issues while attacking the other for being out of touch with reality.

Despite recent mass shootings such Orlando and San Bernardino, which targeted specific people for ideological reasons, or Dallas, where cops were killed, violence is basically half of what it was 20 years ago.