Today’s headline in the Denver Post perfectly captures the complete disconnect that gun control advocates have with the after effect of violent events:

Colorado gun sales soar in 2015, even amid debate over mass shootings

Conceal-carry guns are becoming more popular in Colorado, even after a series of mass shootings

Gun sales “even almost” matched a record high on the day of the Planned Parenthood shooting, the Post reported. Which is really odd because that event was not over until almost 5 p.m. and most people didn’t even know what happened until that Nov. 27 evening, but we digress.

Odder still, is the math used to back up their claim: there were nearly 298,000 background checks conducted through November – that would be on the heels of the Colorado shooting and before the California attacks – compared with nearly 315,000 background checks in Colorado last year.

For those without a calculator, less equals more, apparently.

Pesky facts aside, the reason for the perceived increase in gun sales according to interviews in the Post piece is this:

But advocates for gun control see a different kind of insanity in the high number of gun sales, driven by pro-gun conservatives they accuse of spreading fear.

“Of course it’s concerning,” said Tom Sullivan, who lost his son, Alex, in the Aurora theater shooting in 2012. “I’m concerned about the people buying into the fear that the apocalypse is coming, that the government is coming to get you. No one’s coming to get you.”

State Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora said this: “It seems like every time, whenever there is a mass shooting, gun sales always increase. It’s a trend. It happens.”

Here’s the trend — when people get shot, it prompts gun sales for protection. That doesn’t strike us as “insane.”

The upshot is the numbers don’t back the perception that gun sales increased, or that Jane and John Q. Citizen are buying guns to protect themselves from the government.

Coloradans have a whacky tendency to take personal responsibility for themselves, and are more likely purchasing guns or getting concealed carry permits in case they find themselves in the middle of a crazed gunman’s killing spree.

We’re not protecting ourselves from the government, but in spite of them.

The headlines should not have said gun sales were soaring, or used the phrases “even amid” or “even after” the attacks. If gun sales had increased, it would be because of the attacks, not leftist rhetoric.