An editorial about guns in a New York newspaper is hardly unusual, but one that lambastes claims that more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens is bad for society is something very rare.

The New York Sun, in a Feb. 2 editorial headlined “Concealing the Facts,” took to task both The New York Times and The Florida Sun-Sentinel over coverage of the concealed carry statute in the Sunshine State. The Sun-Sentinel had done several articles in which it decried the fact that some convicted felons had obtained carry permits.

In a few short words, The Sun made it clear that coverage of the gun issue in the other newspapers was somewhat lacking in perspective. In the newspaper’s own words, the subject of gun control arouses an “irrational streak in our political debate.”

In a bold move for a Big Apple newspaper, The Sun editorial bluntly noted, “Predictions of wild-West style shootouts and lawlessness have proven false. That’s not what happened. Not in Florida or in any of the other 37 states with legalized concealed carry.”

Instead, the newspaper noted, “Since the Jack Hagler Self Defense Act went into effect in 1987, crime in Florida has gone down by almost every measure there is.”

“According to statistics provided by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement,” The Sun noted, after having done some homework The Times evidently did not, “firearm murders in Florida between 1987 and 2005 dropped in real terms to 521 from 697. Expressed as the number of firearm murders per 100,000 persons, the drop is even more dramatic, to 2.9 from 5.8. That’s a change of 50%. The drop in violent crime overall is less precipitous but equally steady, including drops in the rates of murder, aggravated assault, robbery, and sexual assault.”

The Sun editorial also chided The Times for using such incendiary phrases in its editorial as “gruesome handiwork” when alluding to the Florida Legislature’s passage of concealed carry, and when it later called Florida lawmakers “corrupt and cowardly” for refusing to “undo these lethal threats” by not repealing the carry law.

“There is nothing ‘lethal’ or ‘gruesome’ about permitting law-abiding citizens to defend themselves by carrying a weapon—or simply to carry a weapon without defending themselves,” The Sun editorialized. “The truth is that if there is a lesson to be drawn from The Sun-Sentinel’s reporting, it’s not, as The Times suggests, that there is something wrong with existing laws. Rather it is that judges should start treating criminals as the law prescribes.

“In Florida,” The Sun editorial concluded, “the law on concealed carry allows persons who have committed serious crimes and have reached plea agreements with judges to have their records scrubbed, to become eligible once more to receive a concealed carry license. An ordinary person might expect an editorial writer opining on all this, particularly in a city where the mayor is trying to make an issue out of ‘illegal’ guns, to look into the statistics on crime and include these facts in an editorial, if only to deal with them. But at The Times, they’re not fit to print.”