New York Post, August 10, 2016
Criminologist: Why Hillary Refuses Police Union Backing
“Democrats have drifted so far left, they now stand at odds with the country’s largest police union,” writes John Lott at National Review. He takes note of the little-reported story that Hillary Clinton told the National Fraternal Order of Police — which backed her husband in 1996 — she isn’t interested in its support. “This is the first time that any major-party presidential candidate has refused to even ask the police for their endorsement.” After all, FOP’s candidate questionnaire contains issues that present political pitfalls for a Democrat — particularly when it comes to civilian gun rights. That’s because cops know “increased civilian gun ownership reduces violent crime.” On this and other criminal-justice issues, he writes, “despite being pro-union,” Clinton and the Democrats “no longer stand a chance of gaining the support of law-enforcement unions.”
KCET (Public Television in Southern California), August 18, 2016 (see also Fox & Hounds)
Supposedly these laws will prevent mass shootings and other murders. But the real problem, as gun scholar John Lott has detailed, is gun-free zones. Psychos and other criminals always will be able to get guns and ammo. But they can be deterred, and if necessary stopped, if law-abiding citizens nearby are armed. . . .
Pittsburgh Tribune, August 13, 2016
Now we again have another argument for the promotion of guns. In his new book, “The War on Guns,” economist and gun-rights advocate John Lott has released his continuing presentation of statistics to show how gun control does not work and that efforts to frighten Americans are more political nonsense than fact. An earlier book, “More Guns, Less Crime,” established Lott to national recognition as he studied more and more statistics, moving from antigun to progun.
His newest offering explores why gun licenses and background checks don’t stop crime; how “gun-free” zones attract mass shooters; why stand-your-ground laws are some of the best crime deterrents; how big-money liberal foundations and the federal government are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into “public health” studies, the sole purpose of which is to manufacture false data against guns; how media bias and ignorance skew the gun debate — and why it will get worse; how anti-gun activists have targeted not just the Second Amendment, but the First Amendment — all in an effort to shut down pro-gun arguments. . . .
The Daily Signal, August 11, 2016
“Gun control advocates think that gun bans will make people safer,” John R. Lott, a columnist for FoxNews.com and author of “The War on Guns,” wrote in an op-ed. “But banning guns only ensures that law-abiding good citizens are disarmed, not the killers. Instead of bans improving safety, these bans attract killers and make it easier for them to commit crimes.” . . .
PJ Media, August 16, 2016
A new study from the Crime Prevention Research Center shows that the most law-abiding Americans are those with a permit to conceal a firearm.
“Indeed, it is impossible to think of any other group in the U.S. that is anywhere near as law-abiding,” says the report, titled “Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States 2016.”
The study compared the rate of criminal offense of concealed-carry permit holders with police officers for the states of Florida and Texas. The study asserts that the populations of Florida and Texas mirror the overall US population. . . .
Western Journalism, August 18, 2016
In an opinion column published Tuesday by Fox News, John R. Lott — an expert on the Second Amendment and the author of nine books about gun rights in America — makes the point with crystal clarity.
While mainstream media “fact checkers” constantly pore over Donald Trump’s speeches to “prove” he’s not being accurate when he says a Clinton presidency would mean a war on gun ownership, the record — and Clinton’s own words – prove the GOP nominee is hitting home.
For instance, in a June interview on ABC with George Stephanopoulos — the former Clinton White House operative — Clinton deliberately declined to say she believes gun ownership is a constitutional right.
“If it is a constitutional right, then it, like every other constitutional right, is subject to reasonable regulations,” Clinton said.
Really. If? Does anyone think the former first lady would have answered that way if the constitutional right involved freedom of the press? Freedom of religion? Maybe she’ll go to a Black Lives Matter meeting and tell the crowd she thinks there should be a big “If”in front of that business about the Constitution prohibiting slavery in the United States or anywhere in its jurisdictions. (Subject to “reasonable regulation” maybe?) . . .
Townhall, August 18, 2016
It doesn’t matter that over the last 47 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control, there has been an almost 75 percent decline in the number of blacks killed by cops. It doesn’t matter that, compared with blacks, twice as many whites are killed by cops. It doesn’t matter that, according to economist John Lott, black teens commit murder at nine times the rate of white teens. Cable news reporters seem oblivious to rates of offending. It’s as if they believe that at 13 percent of the population, blacks should commit 13 percent of the crime — or “institutional racism” must be at play. This is as silly as assuming that since non-Hispanic whites are 62 percent of the population, they should comprise 62 percent of the NBA. . . .
Texas Insider, August 18, 2016
For one thing, in the eight states that identify the gender of permit holders, Lott found the number of permits has increased by 161 percent for women since 2012, nearly double the 85 percent increase for men. . . .
The Courier (Glasgow, MT), August 17, 2016
So what are the solutions? Several groups including the Libertarians have proposed getting rid of “Gun Free Zones.” Noted author John Lott (More Guns, Less Crime) pointed out that the recent killings of 12 movie-goers in Aurora Colorado, the suspect James Holmes had a choice of seven theater complexes within a 20 minute drive of his home. The theater Holms chose happen to be the only one with a sign saying it banned concealed-handgun permits. All the other theaters allowed the 4 percent of Colorado adults with permits to enter with their weapons. . . .
Daily Caller, August 14, 2016 (NRA-ILA, August 13, 2016)
However, as economist John Lott explains in his new book, The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies, 22 of 24 statistical comparisons related to changes in the murder rate against women and law enforcement officers showed “no change in crimes or suicides as a result of . . . new background checks.” Only two of the comparisons showed statistically significant results. Lott says, “One showed that states with expanded background checks on transfers had a large increase in police gun deaths. The other showed a relatively miniscule drop in total suicides. But even these results are no longer statistically significant when other factors are taken into account. The bottom line is that these background checks on private transfers don’t help. Economists, criminologists, and public health researchers have yet to find that the Brady background checks did anything to reduce violent crime. Additional checks aren’t the solution.”
Lott also calculated differences in murder rates generally, and found “murders are 49 percent higher and robberies are 75 percent higher in states with expanded background checks. . . . When you examine all the states [that require background checks on private firearm transfers], there is no evidence to be found that these background checks affect murder rates.” . . .
Ammoland, August 2, 2016
For most firearms enthusiasts, the name John Lott is synonymous with one thing: More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws.
When that book hit the market in 1998, it quickly became recognized as what is perhaps the best critique of gun control ever written.
Having endured a term and a half of what was possibly, until that time, the most anti-gun presidential administrations in history, gun owners at long last could point to a high-profile, scientific treatise based on data for all 3,054 counties in the United States during 18 years from 1977 to 1994. Lott had published data proving what they had instinctively known all along – that states with the largest increases in gun ownership also have the largest drops in violent crimes, and that concealed handgun laws reduce violent crime.
Since that best-seller, Lott, who earned his Ph.D. in economics from UCLA in 1984, has continued to deliver further eye-opening
research into the national conversation.
Released in 2003, The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You’ve Heard About Gun Control Is Wrong proves that assault weapons bans and “one-gun-a-month” laws actually increase crime, details flaws contained in “gun-free school zones” and “safe storage” laws, and provides stark evidence of anti-gun bias and selective reporting of acts of self-defense by the media.
And in 2006, Lott authored Straight Shooting: Firearms, Economics and Public Policy.
There can be no minimizing the significance Dr. Lott’s research has had on the fight to improve and defend gun rights in America. But in his latest book, Dr. Lott proves that he has even more to offer to our country. . . .
The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 16, 2016
Several Letters to the Editor discuss John Lott’s recent Op-ed in the newspaper.
America’s 1st Freedom, August 12, 2016
Blanchfield calls an estimated 2.5 million defensive gun uses per year “absurd,” and then invokes an also-widely-disputed estimate of only 70,000 (from vocal, perennial Harvard anti-gunner David Hemenway). How such “absurdity” was determined remains an obvious question, even when murkily explained by Hemenway. Professors John Lott and Gary Kleck defend vastly more, yet even they don’t agree. The point remains the same: Defaulting to the lowest number out there—by a factor of up to 36 times—is particularly wide of the mark. Remember, we had reported violent crimes of well over 1.1 million in 2014, yet absolutely no way to know how many malefactors simply turned around when they heard a slide or bolt slam home in the dark where they didn’t belong, or faced resolute eye contact and a staged draw. . . .
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