CPRC in the News: Associated Press, Washington Post, Washington Times (3 times), and other places

Washington Post, January 18, 2016

The number of concealed handgun permits has increased over the past decade, from 4.6 million in 2007 to more than 12.8 million in 2015, according to a recent report from the Crime Prevention Research Center. . . .

Santa Fe New Mexican, January 26, 2016

Associated Press: The Oklahoman, January 23, 2016; Washington Times, The Eagle (Bryan-College Station, Texas), KRMG (Tulsa, OK), Bristol Herald Courier (Bristol, Indiana), Daily Journal (Franklin, Indiana), Daily Reporter (Greenfield, Indiana), Argus-Press (Owosso, Michigan), Muskogee Phoenix (Muskogee, OK), Enid News (Enid, OK), The Republic (Columbus, Indiana), and The Dispatch (Clay Center, Kansas), January 24, 2016; Tulsa World, January 25, 2016

Nationally, there are 12.8 million concealed handgun permit-holders, representing 5.2 percent of the U.S. adult population, according to a report released July 13 by the Crime Prevention Research Center, a nonprofit that researches gun laws. . . .

Desert Sun (San Bernardino, CA) and Washington Times, January 20, 2016.  Speaking on the delays in giving out concealed handgun permits in Riverside County, California.

“It’s ridiculous,” John R. Lott Jr., a pro-gun academic with the Crime Prevent Research Center, a Colorado-based nonprofit, told the Desert Sun News. “Most states in the country will get you a concealed carry permit within at least 60 days. What if you have a woman who is being stalked or threatened? What is she supposed to do? Wait a year and a half just to get an appointment?” . . .

America’s First Freedom, January 26, 2016

Those who are pushing to restore funding to the CDC for anti-gun studies also would have you believe that no gun research has been done since the 1997 congressional action. This is clearly false, since criminology research has proceeded unabated, with some of its greatest contributions coming from John Lott. Lott’s monumental 1998 book More Guns, Less Crime is now in its third edition.

Of course, in the minds of the public health anti-gun community, Lott’s research doesn’t count because it finds that gun ownership has benefits for society—a truth that they have spent their professional lives, and millions of our tax dollars, denying. . . .

New American, January 20, 2016

In San Bernardino, applications are being delayed up to 18 months, while in Riverside application appointments are being scheduled out to September.  John Lott, founder of the Crime Prevention Research Center, expressed the frustration of many: “It’s ridiculous. Most states in the country will get you a concealed carry permit within at least 60 days.What if you have a woman who is being stalked or threatened? What is she supposed to do — wait a year and a half just to get an appointment?” . . .

WXOW ABC-TV Channel 19 (La Crosse, Wisconsin), January 17, 2016

According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, since 2007, the number of concealed handgun permits has increased from 4.6 million in 2007 to more than 12.8 million in 2015. However, murder rates have fallen from 5.6 killings per 100 thousand people, to just 4.2; about a 25 percent drop. . . .

Washington Times, January 15, 2016

As Gov. Mike Huckabee put it during the latest undercard Republican debate, “Of course we want to stop gun violence, but the one common thing that has happened in most mass shootings is that they happened in gun-free zones, where people would have been law-abiding citizens, who could have stood up and at least tried to stop it were not allowed to under the law.”

Echoing the historic findings of economist and gun-rights advocate John Lott, Mr. Huckabee makes a valid point; gun-free zones lead not to less but to more gun-related deaths. . . .

Steamboat Today (Steamboat Springs, Colorado), January 16, 2016

“We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees this kind of mass violence,” Obama frequently laments, a claim judged false by Politifact and the Washington Post, which called his language “slippery.”

In fact, the U.S. ranks 11th in per capita fatalities from mass public shootings — behind European countries with stricter gun control laws such as France, Switzerland, Norway and Belgium — according to a Crime Prevention Research Center analysis of the period 2009 through 2015. Meanwhile, total U.S. homicides are at historic lows. . . .