Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why should this have been downvoted? The post I replied to asked why science matters if the gun issue is moral . I simply stated how science (i.e. reasoning from data) affects moral action, and how the two interact (addressing the other part of the poster's question). It was not a pro- or anti-gun statement. I fired a handgun just the other day.
There isn't a hypothetical set of statistics you can imagine that would change my moral stance on gun rights and self defense one way or the other.
I ask because there are plenty of other such cases. We decide how much to spend on freeway construction and maintenance vs lives saved. We study the dangers, additivity etc of smoking and decide it's better to place some restrictions on people's presumed freedom of choice in order to, ironically, improve their in practice freedom of choice. We restrict the absoluteness of some peoples' freedom of association to improve everyone's freedom of association, using data to determine where this might be appropriate and how much. Etc etc.
What I have said is true regardless if you think the right to bear arms is absolute or if you think it's absolutely abhorrent, much less if your position is in between. Do you believe that science has no bearing on morality of any kind, or only on the topic of guns?