The Hill, March 8, 2018
As has been the case with school shootings, American soldiers were sitting ducks in the defenseless killing fields known as “gun-free zones,” where criminals, but not the average citizen would be armed. In fact, the Crime Prevention Research Center revealed that 96.2 percent of mass public shootings from 1998 through 2015 occurred in gun free zones. . . .
The News & Observer (Charlotte, NC), March 8, 2018
Crediting reductions to deterrence, they called the findings “dramatic,” concluding: “[T]he only policy factor to have a consistently significant influence on multiple victim public shootings is…passage of concealed handgun laws. . . . .
Vail Daily (Vail, Colorado), March 7, 2018
Let’s look at myth No. 1. After the Charleston, North Carolina, mass shooting, then-President Barack Obama said, “Let’s be clear: At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.”
However, as Investor Business Daily points out, “A study of global mass-shooting incidents from 2009 to 2015 by the Crime Prevention Research Center, headed by economist John Lott, shows the U.S. doesn’t lead the world in mass shootings. In fact, it doesn’t even make the top 10, when measured by death rate per million population from mass public shootings.”
When we compare the frequency of mass public shootings in the United States versus Europe, we see that the United States actually ranks 12th in mass shooting with a rate of 0.078 mass shootings per million, behind nations such as Macedonia, 0.471 per million (six times the U.S. rate); Switzerland, 0.281 per million (3 1/2 times the U.S. rate); and Belgium, 0.179 (nearly 2 1/2 times the U.S. rate)
So while the rate of gun homicides is higher in America than in Europe (thank you, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans and Baltimore), our rate of mass shootings and mass shooting deaths per capita is far lower. At the same time, myth No. 2, “the cause is lack of gun control,” is unsupported conjecture. . . .
World Tribune, March 7, 2018, Courier-Tribune (Asheboro, NC), March 6, 2018; Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, Florida); Gainesville Sun (Gainesville, Florida); Front Page, March 6, 2018; Daily Commercial, March 6, 2018; News Chief (Winter Haven, Florida), March 3, 2018; Kinston (Kinston, North Carolina), March 3, 2018; New Bern Sun Journal (New Bern, North Carolina), March 3, 2018;
Twenty years ago economist John Lott, author of “More Guns, Less Crime,” and his research partner wrote: “We find that allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters violent crimes and it appears to produce no increase in accidental deaths. If those states which did not have right-to-carry concealed gun provisions had adopted them in 1992, approximately 1,570 murders; 4,177 rapes; and over 60,000 aggravated assaults would have been avoided yearly.” . . .
The Daily Signal, March 6, 2018
Data from the Crime Prevention Research Center, a pro-gun rights think tank, indicate that there are about 16.5 million active concealed carry permits in the U.S., only 182,000 of which have been issued by the populous states of California and New York. “Outside the restrictive states of California and New York, about 8 percent of the adult population has a permit,” a July report from the center noted. . . .
Reading Eagle, March 6, 2018
“There have been around 3 million denials since NICS started (20 years ago) and almost all are mistakes,” Lott said, explaining that is why there have been almost no prosecutions for denials.
“Criminals are dumb. But they are not so stupid as to go fill out a background check. They only people you get are people who didn’t know they are on the list. Not the hardened criminals,” Lott said. . . .
Western Journalism Review, March 6, 2018
Gun expert Dr. John Lott with the Crime Prevention Research Center noted in a op-ed for Fox News that — as was true in the United States in the 1990s — homicide rates in Australia had been declining both before and after the country’s gun control measures were adopted. Interestingly, the rate of decline in the murder rate actually slowed post implementation of the legislation.
Further, gun ownership increased steadily. “In fact, since 1997 gun ownership in Australia grew over three times faster than the population (from 2.5 million to 5.8 million guns),” he wrote.
“Gun control advocates should have predicted a sudden drop in firearm homicides and suicides after the buyback, and then an increase as the gun ownership rate increased again. But that clearly didn’t happen,” Lott added. “For other crimes, such as armed robbery, what happened is the exact opposite of what was predicted. The armed robbery rate soared right after the gun buyback, then gradually declined.” . . .
World Net Daily, March 6, 2018
“I’m very frustrated by this whole debate myself,” he said. “What makes me even more frustrated is the fact that the types of solutions that are being offered have really nothing to do with stopping these types of mass public shootings.”
Lott then took aim at ideas like expanded background checks and banning so-called assault weapons, explaining why he believes they wouldn’t work.
“The number one solution that Democrats go to all the time are the background checks on private transfers of guns,” he explained. “If that type of law had been in effect, it wouldn’t have stopped any mass public shooting this century or even years before that. And yet they keep pushing it.”
He said the statistics on “assault weapons” are also unconvincing.
“To go and ban guns based on how they look really never made much sense to me, and there’s a lot of academic research that shows that it had no impact on these types of crimes,” Lott said. . . .
New American, March 6, 2018
Since 2011, there have been only three mass public shootings in areas where concealed carry was allowed.… These cases are very rare. From 1950-2010, not a single mass shooting occurred in an area where general civilians are allowed to carry guns.
Over the entire period from 1950 through February 2016, just over 1 percent of mass public shootings occurred in such places.
Put another way, according to Lott, more than 98 percent of the time shooters choose places where their intended victims aren’t allowed to defend themselves with firearms.
Lott then reviews the shooters who left notes and plans behind, such as Khalil Abu-Rayyan, an ISIS supporter who was planning an attack on one of the biggest churches in Detroit. According to Lott, Rayyan explained his choice of target this way: “A lot of people go there. Plus people are not allowed to carry guns in church. Plus, it would make the news. Everybody [on the planet] would’ve heard [about it]. . . .
Des Moines Register, March 5, 2018
Did they know that John Lott’s study of multiple victim public shootings from 1977 to 1997 showed that shall issue concealed weapons permit laws decreased the number of public multiple victim shootings by up to 70% because the likely presence of concealed carry permit holders deters mass shooters? The effect does not apply in gun free zones, such as schools which do not allow concealed carry. . . . .
The Dickinsonian, March 8, 2018
The fact of the matter is that it takes an armed individual to disarm another armed individual. Allowing schools to be gun-free zones is allowing our nation’s children to be framed as sitting ducks. According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, from the 1950’s through July 10 of 2016, 98.4 percent of mass shootings have occurred on gun-free zones, with just 1.6 occurring where citizens were allowed to have firearms. Let’s change that. Let’s ensure that another Parkland doesn’t occur without jeopardizing the right of law-abiding citizens to own and operate certain firearms. . . .
Accuracy in Academia, January 30, 2018
A favorite theme among journalists and academics alike is the rarity of crimes committed by immigrants. As it turns out, that likelihood may depend on whether the immigrants themselves are here legally. “The crime rate among illegal immigrants in Arizona is twice that of other residents, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Friday, citing a new report based on conviction data,” Stephen Dinan reported in The Washington Times. “The report, from the Crime Prevention Research Center, used a previously untapped set of data from Arizona that detailed criminal convictions and found that illegal immigrants between 15 and 35 are less than 3 percent of the state’s population, but nearly 8 percent of its prison population.”
“And the crimes they were convicted of were, on the whole, more serious, said John R. Lott Jr., the report’s author and president of the research center. His findings also challenge the general narrative that immigrants commit fewer crimes.”
“Those past studies usually don’t look at legal versus illegal populations, Mr. Lott said.” . . .
American Thinker, February 16, 2018
Breitbart, January 30, 2018
NRA-ILA, March 8, 2018
A 2014 study from the Crime Prevention Research Center examined permit holders in Florida and Texas. Between 2008 and 2014, Florida had an average of 875,000 active permit holders. Its permit revocation rate during those years (i.e., the rate of concealed carriers who had their permits revoked due to firearm-related offenses) was a staggeringly low 0.00007%. . . .
NRA-ILA, January 30, 2018
Lott-Mustard study: Studying crime trends in every county in the U.S., economist John Lott and David Mustard concluded, “allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters violent crimes. . . . [W]hen state concealed handgun laws went into effect in a county, murders fell by 8.5 percent, and rapes and aggravated assaults fell by 5 and 7 percent.” . . .
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