ABC Channel 10 (Sacramento, California), February 25, 2016
The spike is so pronounced that it has angered gun advocates and gun critics alike. To those who see the proliferation of firearms as a problem, another rush for guns is just the latest chapter in a tragically familiar story. To those who consider concealed weapons a constitutional right, government bureaucracy is paralyzing their best tool for self-defense.
“It’s ridiculous,” said John R. Lott Jr., a pro-gun academic with the nonprofit Crime Prevent Research Center. “Most states in the country will get you a concealed carry permit within at least 60 days. What if you have a woman who is being stalked or threatened? What is she supposed to do – wait a year and a half just to get an appointment?” . . .
Townhall.com, March 06, 2016
There’s no doubt that the rate of black homicides is probably (and unacceptably) high. Yet, the Violence Policy Center has skewed data before, like their egregious study on so-called “concealed carry killers,” which lumped those with CCWs who were convicted of crimes, with those whose trials were pending. That’s not the same thing and was rightfully called out by the Crime Prevention Research Center’s John Lott as a shameful move to inflate the numbers. Like law enforcement, concealed carry holders are incredibly law-abiding; you have to be in order to obtain the permit itself. In some states, data on concealed carry holders abusing their license is often not reported anymore because it occurs so infrequently. . . .
Orange County Register, March 6, 2016
By contrast, it is conceal-carry laws that have prevented many crimes. After the mass shooting last October at officially gun-free Umpqua Community College in Oregon, gun scholar John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center wrote, “Since at least 1950, all but two public mass shootings in America have taken place where general citizens are banned from carrying guns. In Europe, there have been no exceptions.”
Basically, as Lott has pointed out, mass shootings usually end when someone with a gun shoots or disarms the killers. That could be police responding to a call. Or it could be an armed citizen on the spot. Lott and other gun scholars have detailed numerous instances of conceal-carry citizens stopping mass killings.
For example, in Philadelphia, Pa., a year ago, Lott wrote, “A permit holder was walking by a barber shop when he heard shots fired. He quickly ran into the shop and shot the gunman to death. Police Captain Frank Llewellyn said, ‘I guess he saved a lot of people in there.’”
I feel safer knowing more Orange County citizens are armed and ready to defend all of us. . . .
The Tennessean, March 9, 2016
Gresham amended her bill to address concerns expressed by some of her colleagues. While discussing the amendment, Gresham said her goal was to rewrite the bill to get property owners to take down signs indicating gun-free zones.
She cited comments from John Lott, a Fox News columnist, who spoke in favor of several gun bills on Feb. 10 and who also said posting gun-free signs can create problems.
“What you are essentially doing was saying ‘Active shooters welcome here,’ ” Gresham said, noting that the original version of her bill would have made a business owner liable for anything that happened to a gun owner while on the premises.
“This one says, take the sign down and you will have civil immunity in case anything happens,” she explained. . . .
Elko Daily Free Press, February 26, 2016
Professor John R. Lott’s work makes the argument that more law-abiding citizens owning and carrying guns serves as a deterrent for criminals who would be less likely to attack someone if there was a chance their potential victim was armed.
He also published a book called “More Guns Less Crime” in 1998.
IAP member Marry Ann Polish said having a speaker like Lott is an important message for communities like Elko to hear. . . .
Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 10, 2016
According to economist John Lott, writing in the New York Daily News, measuring mass shootings from 2009 to mid-2015 on a per-capita basis places the U.S. eighth compared to various European nations. . . .
The Daily Caller, February 17, 2016
Dr. John Lott surveyed the media, the numbers are impossibly upside down. In one year, USA Today ran 6,000 words on gun-related crime and zero on the good that guns enable. . . .
Folio Weekly, February 17, 2016
Massive increase in gun sellers indicates Northeast Floridians pack some serious heat.
The thirst for weapons shows no signs of slacking. This year is already blasting away 2015 in terms of gun demand. The FBI reports that there were 2.5 million firearms background checks performed in January, an increase of 773,008, or 44 percent over, January 2015.
The Crime Prevention Research Center reports that Florida has issued the most concealed-carry permits of all the states: 1.28 million.
Many believe that the gun culture, as evidenced by increased numbers of gun sellers, ownership and concealed-carry permit holders, increases rates of violence.
“If you look at the people that possess guns on a regular basis, there’s a point where the gun or the power or the fear or whatever it is starts to possess them, and it becomes their great equalizer,” says attorney John M. Phillips.
Belleville News-Democrat, February 19, 2016
The Crime Prevention Research Center has released results of a survey of economists and criminologists that finds “guns are used more for self-defense than crime; gun-free zones fail to deter criminals, rather, they attract them; guns in the house don’t increase the risk of suicide; those who hold concealed handgun permits are more law-abiding than the average American; and permitted concealed handguns lower the murder rate.” . . .
America’s 1st Freedom, February 22, 2016
The Elkhart Truth (Elkhart, Indiana), February 10, 2016
Indiana has third-highest concentration of adults with gun permits in the nation. The number of gun permit holders in Indiana trails only Alabama and South Dakota, according to a study by the Crime Prevention Research Center.
Bearing Arms, February 17, 2016
Economist John Lott noted that this has been a grim month for U.S. law enforcement, and that it might have been even worse if armed citizens had not stepped up in support of law enforcement officers in danger. . . .
Great Falls Tribune (Montana), February 23, 2016
Advocates of a firearm ban would say that a ban on firearms would only further help this positive trend. However, history has proven otherwise. Take England and Wales for example.
According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, shortly after those countries enacted their gun bans the immediate effect was about a 50 percent increase in homicide rates. The homicide and firearm homicide rates only began falling when there was a large increase in the number of police officers during 2003 and 2004.
“Despite the huge increase in the number of police, the murder rate still remained slightly higher than the immediate pre-ban rate,” the center found. , , ,
ValueWalk, February 24, 2016
Guns.com, February 22, 2016
However, the VPC has been criticized in the past over the content of its studies. The Crime Prevention Research Center published an article in 2014 that said VPC data on “concealed carry killers” had “massive errors,” such as double-counting homicide cases and attributing deaths to “permitted concealed handguns” without solid evidence.
The Baltimore Sun, February 22, 2016, Letters
First of all, guns are not violent, certain people with guns are violent and they should be the focus of our lawmakers and police. John Lott conducted an extensive and all inclusive study of the effect of armed, law abiding citizens on crime. In every instance where there are right-to-carry laws, crime goes down. His study was attacked but never successfully, so the anti-Second Amendment people simply gave up on trying to disprove him! . . .
Huffington Post, February 16, 2016. The Huffington Post is making the claim that Democratic Virginia Governor McAuliffe changed his position on concealed handguns because of John Lott’s research.
Governor McAuliffe has tried to assuage concerns about this rollback by claiming that “there is no evidence that anyone with a concealed carry permit has ever harmed anyone in Virginia.” . . . The governor’s claim appears to be based entirely on the testimony of Fox News columnist John Lott, whose research has now been thoroughly discredited. . . .
As a response to the claims of being “discredited,” see here.
The Northwoods River News (Rhineland, Wisconsin), January 8, 2016
Gun-control advocates, including President Barack Obama, make ongoing claims that expanding background checks to include any private transfers of guns – so-called universal background checks – would reduce mass public shootings, but there’s no evidence to support those claims, and, indeed, states adopting additional background checks have higher gun incident rates, a new study asserts.
The report by the Crime Prevention Research Center, headed by gun expert John Lott, was released Jan. 2.
The study observed that a call for universal background checks is an automatic response to mass shootings, as Obama did after the San Bernardino shooting in December.
“And there are some steps we could take not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings but to improve the odds that they don’t happen as frequently: common-sense gun safety laws, stronger background checks,” Obama said.
Hillary Clinton, too, has urged the same expansion, the study pointed out, calling for “common-sense steps like comprehensive background checks, closing the loopholes that let guns fall into the wrong hands.”
But there’s no evidence, the study contends, that expanding background checks reduces the risk of attacks.
“Examining all the mass public shootings in the U.S. from 2000 through 2015, we find that states adopting additional background checks on private transfers they see a statistically significant increase in rates of killings (80 percent higher) and injuries (101 percent) from mass public shootings,” the study states. “There is not one mass public shooting that occurred over that period where these checks would have prevented from occurring.” . . .
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