On NPR’s “On Point” to Debate National Concealed Handgun Reciprocity

Dec 11, 2017 | Featured

Dr. John Lott squared off against three gun control advocates (Lois Beckett, a reporter for The Guardian and a former reporter for the left wing ProPublica; Robert Spitzer, a political scientist at SUNY Cortland; and an officer from the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Department).  You get some idea where NPR is coming from given that their page for the show labels only Lott as “a gun rights proponent,” but provides no similar labels for the other guests.  The first 23 minutes have only Beckett or Spitzer.

(Monday, December 11, 2017, from 11:05 AM to noon EST.  “On Point” is on over 290 NPR stations.)

This first audio only has the portion of the interview which starts when Dr. Lott is involved in the discussion.

The entire show is available here, including initial statements by Beckett and Spitzer.

Beckett talked about how the prospect of reciprocity was “terrifying” police.  Here are two surveys that indicate police generally have a different view of reciprocity and concealed handgun laws: NACOP survey results 2016 on reciprocity.  A 2013 Survey of Police by PoliceOne found strong results regarding concealed handgun permits (available here see question 19).

johnrlott

7 Comments

  1. jennifer

    you gotta know if youre going on npr your up against the loons. i thought you did great even given the grossly unfair advantage. they have no factual data – its all about spin.

  2. Mike Prieur

    Thanks for your hard work and dedication Dr Lott.

    • johnrlott

      Thank you very much, Mike.

  3. Tim Walley

    The Baltimore Police commander said 67 out of thousand plus protective order respondents served had a permit. I’m guessing Maryland has about 15,000 ccws out there. They have a population of 6 million. That’s 1/400 have a permit. Something doesn’t sound right. She used the term permit. I wonder if she muddied the water and mixed wear and carry (CCW) with Maryland’s Handgun Qualification License, which is just an authorization to purchase or loan a firearm, not carry?

    • johnrlott

      Thanks, Tim. You are exactly right. She was confusing for people the permit necessary to own a gun and the permit necessary to carry one. In addition, some portion of that small number of people who have permits to own a gun might not actually be guilty. During divorce proceedings, some women strategically bring claims regarding domestic violence.

  4. Phil Kline

    Good job as always, John.

    The usual Lefty arguments:
    – All the cool kids oppose this – (arguing that various groups agree with the interviewer, then immediately attempting to shut down discussion on that point.)
    – The experts agree with me – (police chiefs and prosecutors oppose this….just like they would oppose the 4th and 5th and 7th Amendments, because limiting searches and allowing suspects to remain silent, and speedy trials and juries of their peers and providing a right to a lawyer, all tend to make convictions harder to obtain.)
    – The Bill of Rights is not absolute – (true, but that doesn’t mean that it can be infringed at will, by “reasonable regulations”; the Left understands this point when you try to regulate their current pet causes, like immigration (foreigners have no rights outside this country anyway), or abortion (Pennsylvania’s governor is vetoing a restriction on abortions at 20 weeks, 5 months into the 9 month term) or voting, or even Welfare.)
    – A right to bear arms doesn’t mean that you have any right to carry a gun – (this is obviously wrong, since “bear” and “carry” are effectively synonyms.)
    – This will allow wife-beaters and felons to legally carry guns in every state – (factually wrong, since Federal law already bars a host of people from even touching guns or ammunition, including felons, domestic abusers, the mentally ill, those dishonorably discharged from the military, and anyone ever convicted of any crime punishable by more than 1 year in jail, even if they were never sentenced to a single day. Hard to carry a gun legally if it’s illegal to even touch a gun.)
    – Police are trained and “civilians” are not – (the truth is that non-police gun owners usually practice more than cops do, and it’s not hard to find stories of police completely missing their targets in a firefight, or shooting someone without justification. Further, these are the same Lefties who (mistakenly) believe that police are racists who target innocent young black men, so maybe if they’re right about police racism it’s a bad idea to disarm everyone except police.)
    – You don’t need a gun to protect yourself because the police will protect you, that’s their job – (no, it’s not the job of the police to protect individuals, their job is to maintain order and punish the guy who killed you, afterwards. Most people would prefer to stay alive rather than know that their killer may be arrested.)

    • johnrlott

      Thank you, Phil.

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