Dr. John Lott debated Michael Shermer at FreedomFest in July 19, 2019. Because of copyright restrictions this post only provides Dr. Lott side of the presentation. Dr. Lott won the audience vote by 83% to 17% and won the jury vote by 10 to 2.
Media Bias on Armed Civilians Stopping Mass Public Shootings, falsely claiming civilians rarely stop mass shootings
Two days after the Oregon attack, the Associated Press opened a story with a familiar claim: “Few mass shootings in the U.S. end like the deadly attack on an Oregon elementary school: with an armed civilian opening fire on the gunman.” NPR noted: “how rarely an armed...
Dr. Lott’s presentation is spot on. The police cannot protect citizens from violence. Tighter Gun Controls promote increased violent crime.
I am betting Dr. Lott is probably kicking himself though for failing to mention this following point. When Shermer in his usual smirking style put up those two pictures, one of a group of navy seals followed by same size group of “regular joes”. Followed by the comment would one (joes) have a chance against the other (seals). I would have said how many navy seals are there (~2000); how many gun owners are there (~80-100 million). So easily a thousand to one in favor of joes vs seals. So how would 5 Navy seals do against 5000 regular joes?