CPRC in the News: Washington Examiner, Seeking Alpha, PJ Media, Real Clear Politics, Just the News, and much more

Jul 27, 2021 | Media Coverage

Economist and gun rights advocate John Lott wrote the successful and breakthrough book More Guns, Less Crime in 1998, and the anti-gun Left has never forgiven him for it.

Anti-gunners refuse to appear with the author, speaker, numbers cruncher, and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center on TV, radio, or any other medium. According to Lott, who most recently wrote the book Gun Control Myths, whenever anti-gun groups like Everytown for Gun Safety, Bloomberg, and Moms Demand Action find out that they’ll be going toe-to-toe with him, they cancel.

They want to appear alone and unchallenged, or not at all. Hand-wringing mothers in pearls are visually more interesting than Lott.

He just might know a thing or two about a thing or two, to borrow a phrase.

So, instead of debating or appearing with Lott, a group called “Change the Ref” conspired with their fundraising, advertising, and media allies to humiliate, defame, and embarrass him.

Anything not to have to debate him.

He has been complaining about the blackout for years.

One could see why the anti-gun groups wouldn’t want to be side-by-side with Lott. Lott’s biography reads like an academic’s dream. He’s taught at Yale, Penn’s Wharton School of Business, the University of Chicago (where Milton Friedman knew him and spoke highly of him), Stanford, and Rice University. He’s worked for the Department of Justice as a senior adviser for research statistics and was the chief economist for the U.S. Sentencing Commission. He’s written multiple books on crime and guns. He worked for a short time for the Trump administration as a “Senior Advisor for Research and Statistics in the Office of Justice Programs for the U.S. Department of Justice and then the Senior Advisor for Research and Statistics in the Office of Legal Policy for the US Department of Justice.” Phew.

Change the Ref, whose stated objective is to “raise awareness about mass shootings through strategic interventions that will reduce the influence of the NRA on the Federal level [emphasis added]… worked around the clock for months” plotting a way to get Lott to appear in one of their videos in order to undermine him.

The plot had to be bold. It had to appeal to his sense of duty and honor. And it had to be a total fraud.

The tactics of this group would make Mike Wallace, NBC News, and James O’Keefe blush with embarrassment.

The New Republic’s news-hoaxster Stephen Glass and The Washington Postfakesters Janet Cooke and Jayson Blair would have been jealous of the chutzpah used in the ruse.

The group concocted a fake online high school, James Madison Academy, based in Las Vegas. And they asked Lott and a former president of the NRA to speak at the school’s graduation.

They created a website, which Lott says contained information, such as endorsements and stories about successful students, that gave the school the air of legitimacy. The website has since been disappeared. . . . . [Still much more in the link below]

VICTORIA TAFT, “An Anti-Gun Group Concocts a Massive Hoax to Embarrass Their Pro-Gun Nemesis. Here’s How That Went,” PJ Media, July 20, 2021

It is one thing to report on a case of fraudulent entrapment. It is another to report on the entrapment from the singular perspective of the perpetrator. That’s what CNN, MSNBC, Democracy Now, and many other parts of the liberal media did when a gun control advocate deceitfully invited the former head of the National Rifle Association, David Keene, and a noted gun rights advocate, John Lott, to give a commencement address to a high school graduating that turned out to be entirely fictitious. Doug McKelway has more on an elaborate hoax and its deceitful framing by the liberal media. 

Washington Examiner Staff, “Beyond fake news: Gun rights advocates tricked into giving fake commencement,” Washington Examiner, July 06, 2021

A study issued by Crime Prevention Research Center on September 21, 2020 reported that the number of concealed carry permits in the U.S. was up 34% in 2020 compared to 2016.

Sebastian Bauer, “The Vista Outdoor Turnaround Has Gained A Lot Of Momentum,” Seeking Alpha, July 15, 2021.

John Lott, the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, called McAuliffe’s insinuation “absurd.”

“If he is talking about Virginia, you used to be required to show something like a utility bill [to vote],” Lott said. “But now in Virginia no proof of who you are is required.”

The Virginia legislature last year passed a law stating that a voter who is unable to produce one of the state’s many forms of accepted identification is still permitted to “sign a statement that he is the named registered voter he claims to be.”

“To buy a gun not only requires a government-issued photo ID, it requires a background check,” said Lott. “For a private transfer of a gun, the cost of that background check can range from $55 in Oregon to $125 in DC to $200 in NYC. There are no poll taxes on voting in Virginia or any other state.  

“As far as the time involved, because the [FBI background check] system breaks down from time to time, it could take [anywhere] from hours to days for you to buy a gun.” . . .

Lott deemed “false” regular Democratic claims that millions of prohibited individuals are stopped from buying firearms by the background check system.

“About 99 percent of those denials are mistakes, with the government simply confusing someone’s name with that of a prohibited person’s,” he said. “What would McAuliffe say if 3.5 million American voters had been denied their right to vote for similar reasons and those denied were disproportionately black and Hispanic males?” . . .

Daniel Payne, “‘Absurd’: Experts rebut Democrats’ claims about firearms industry, gun purchases,” Just the News, July 9, 2021.

Even though 92% of crimes committed in the U.S do not involve a firearm; in response to the rise in violent crime across many of America’s major cities, President Biden announced his administration will focus its efforts on prosecuting inanimate objects. Lars brings on Dr. John Lott, who is the President of Crime Prevention Research Center and author of “Gun Control Myths” to speak on Biden’s gun control plans. Take a listen below.

Lars Larson, “DEMOCRAT DECEPTION: How Much Of America’s Crime Really Involves Guns?,” KTSA, July 22, 2021.

The Crime Prevention Research Center reports 92 percent of all violent crimes DO NOT INVOLVE firearms.

Staff, “NW Government Ignores The Facts And Insist Guns Are The Problem,” KXL FM Radio 101, July 21, 2021

study analyzing FBI crime data by John R. Lott, Jr. had found that allowing law-abiding citizens to conceal carry led to 8.5 percent reduction in murders, 5 percent reduction in rapes, 7 percent reduction in aggravated assaults, and a 3 percent reduction in robberies. . . .

Elie Cantin-Nantel, “California homeowner shoots armed home intruder as state cracks down on legal gun owners,” Post Millennial, July 8, 2021.

John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, complained that the focus on guns, both by the media and the White House, ignores this basic fact: More than 90 percent of violent crimes in American do not involve firearms at all.

Lott explains that, in attempting to rein in violence, many other relevant factors are ignored: unrest over the George Floyd murder; the impact of the COVID restrictions, including mass layoffs and youths being kept out of schools; the early release of many convicts from prison; softening of bail rules that allow those accused of crimes to remain on the streets; police ordered to stand down; police departments having their funding reduced; and liberal prosecutors in many major urban areas refusing to prosecute violent criminals.

Lott also points out facts that are conveniently missing from the mainstream media’s (and likely ABC News’ “One Nation Under Fire”) including: More than half of all murders in the country take place in just 60 of the nation’s 3,140 counties, most of them occurring within a 10-block area. Gun violence there is overwhelmingly gang related. . . .

Bob Adelmann, “,ABC News’ “One Nation Under Fire” Will Promote the Lie About Gun Violence in the U.S.” New American, July 23, 2021

As John Lott noted in his book, “More Guns, Less Crime,” and had repeatedly observed at the Crime Prevention Research Center, the presence of more guns in the hands of civilians appears to be strongly correlated to decreases in violent crime. Even FBI crime stats show this.Yet Cuomo wants to spend tons of NY taxpayer money to further threaten those very same taxpayers who might want to own guns, and to threaten gun makers with potential lawsuits.

P. Gardner Goldsmith, “NY Gov. Cuomo Declares ‘Disaster Emergency’ To Attack Gun Rights,” Media Research Center, July 8, 2021.

So-called subject matter experts were called in from anti-gun organizations, but no others. Had they called in Dr. John Lott at the Crime Prevention Research Center, or Lesley Hollywood at Rally for our Rights, the discussion could have made actual progress with all sides weighing in. . . .

Don Cage, “Criminals obey laws?” Times-Call (Longmont, Texas), July 10, 2021.

John Lott challenges a gun control group’s claim about the number of would-be high school graduates who died from gun violence. But the media especially earns his disdain for failing to check the figures.

Carl Cannon, “Overreach Warning; Gun-Death Hoax; For Whom the Bell Tolled,” Real Clear Politics, July 8, 2021.

As a compromise in the debate over Constitutional Carry, the Indiana legislature passed a firearms reform bill that eliminated the fee for an Indiana lifetime carry permit. The fee for the 5-year permit was eliminated in 2019. That law went into effect on 1 July 2020. From the Crime Prevention Research Center, Indiana had 967,061 permits as of July 1, 2020. At that time, 18.73% of the adult population had an Indiana carry permit.

Dean Weinga, IN: State Police Overwhelmed by Response to Free Lifetime Carry Permits,” Ammoland, July 23, 2021rten

Bear in mind, however, that even if FBI reports may appear to be more accurate than the GVA, there are still problems with FBI accuracy. Especially as it relates to instances where lawfully armed citizens helped to end these ASIs.

It is true, however, as researcher John Lott pointed out a few years ago, that about “98 percent of the mass public shootings in the U.S. since at least 1950 have occurred in ‘gun-free zones,’ places where general citizens aren’t allowed to defend themselves.” . . .

johnrlott

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