Free Republic

This past Saturday Bloomberg’s Everytown representative, Ted Alcorn, insisted that he would not appear simultaneously with John Lott (the author of More Guns, Less Crime (University of Chicago Press) and the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center) on C-SPAN. Alcorn would only appear after Lott's segment was finished. Here is John Lott's discussion of Bloomberg's gun control advocates unwillingness to ever debate http://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?c4535462 Here is Bloomberg’s Research Director’s explanation for why his organization won't ever debate. http://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?c4535518 Acorn's explanation for why Bloomberg's groups refuse to debate is pretty embarrassing. Hopefully, these clips will get a lot of attention and...

John Lott talked about the new study put out by Pew Research Center which finds that support for gun rights have increased and, for the first time, protecting gun rights is more important than controlling ownership. He responded to telephone calls and electronic communications, including a telephone line reserved for gun owners.

Here’s an article, in where Dr. John R. Lott Jr., eviscerates Harvard Professor David Hemenway’s survey of cherry picked authors. That of course lead to the conclusion that guns are bad. It’s what these people do. No matter real credible research, and the longstanding Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is an obvious social utility of the people. I wonder why gun prohibitionists think the Second Amendment was created to begin with. It’s in the Bill of Rights. Even still, they love to refer to guns as if being deprived of arms, is some sort of benefit.

From C-SPAN: “John Lott talked about the new study put out by Pew Research Center which finds that support for gun rights have increased and, for the first time, protecting gun rights is more important than controlling ownership.” Lott was originally supposed to be on for an hour to discuss these issues with Ted Alcorn, the research director for Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown. But he would not appear at the same time and insisted that he be allowed to appear after me. This is from the end of Lott’s appearance on C-SPAN.

The video has an interesting compilation of clips from The Today Show, Greg Gutfeld, CNN, and Fox about ho the CPRC was able to get across the benefits of people owning guns https://youtu.be/iNMk3N5IndA

Crime stats published by the FBI and relied upon by the media distort the gun violence and leave the public with the impression "mass shooting" incidents are a much bigger threat than they really are, according to a criminologist and Second Amendment scholar. The bureau's annual reports tabulating and classifying a wide range of crime throughout the nation have been historically free of politics, but John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, said the latest statistics contain numbers that are misleading at best and deliberately fudged at worst. Lott believes the numbers may have been presented to overstate...

Michael Bloomberg is spending tens of millions of dollars trying to convince state legislatures to support restrictive gun control laws. From television and newspaper ads, to blanketing communities with flyers, to bringing in people from out of state to testify, no effort seems too great. Then again, he is worth of over $36 billion. But Bloombeg’s newest campaign has become so extreme that even gun control advocates may wonder that he is becoming a liability to their cause. And he has already earned a reputation for fabricating numbers, with even liberal-leaning PolitiFact slamming Bloomberg for exaggerating the number of school...

Addressing the nation from Selma, Ala., on Saturday, President Obama said that while racism may be “no longer endemic,” as it was 50 years ago, his Justice Department’s report on Ferguson shows that the “nation’s racial history still casts its long shadow upon us.” Sorry: The Justice report doesn’t prove disparate treatment, let alone discrimination. In fact, it looks more like something ginned up to distract from the embarrassing fact that Justice (in another report released the same day) wound up fully validating the findings of the Ferguson grand jury. Racism is serious, and those engaging in it should be...

This is an excellent video where John Lott appears on John Stossel's show, and debunk's claims made by Michael Bloomberg's organizations.  It is particularly effective in showing that media reports are often gross distortions of the facts.  The old media sometimes completely reverses reality in their reporting. It is a good reference to link to when debating disarmists in the comments sections of various publications on the Internet.   People who are unwilling to accept facts or reason will simply ignore it, but most people do not have their minds made up.  They will consider the possibility that they are...

Bloomberg's argument here is that the bill to allow concealed handgun permit holders to carry on school property is really an attempt to let criminals carry guns around schools. The fact that people will need a permit that requires a criminal background check is never mentioned. So what is the rate that permit holders cause problems? It is very, very rare. . . .

Crime Prevention Research Center's John Lott talking about gun-free zones on Wyoming Capitol Outlook, Wyoming Public Television

People walking the streets with guns pose a danger to others, right? With 12 million Americans across all 50 states now having concealed handgun permits, one would think that this question would have been settled one way or another. In fact, contrary to the rhetoric by gun-control organizations, permit holders almost never use their guns to commit violent crimes. Last Wednesday, The New York Times claimed “there should be no disputing” a new report, which claims there were 722 gun deaths nationwide from May 2007 to February 2015 that were not self-defense. The Times asserts: “The full death toll attributable...

Which is more likely to kill you: a car or a gun? Various publications, from The Economist to Forbes, and many others have been reporting that gun deaths are set to overtake road deaths before the year is up. But not only isn’t that going to happen. Car deaths have indeed fallen more than gun deaths, but that’s not because of comparatively stringent safety regulations. Gun control advocates brag that they have “a statistic that really resonates with people.” The latest data we have are from 2013. In that year, 35,598 people died from motor vehicle deaths. 32,888 died from...

With well over 700,000 concealed handgun permit holders in Texas, there is a good chance that someone next you in a grocery store or restaurant is carrying a concealed handgun. But some are only satisfied if others actually know that they are carrying. They think that by openly carrying guns they can make others comfortable with guns. They want to make a statement. Texas lawmakers are now wrestling with the questions of campus carry and open carry. They couldn’t face a clearer choice between enhancing safety or making political statements. Open carry advocates carry rifles because they can’t legally openly...

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/featured/prime-time/867432237001/machete-vs-firearm/3998897878001

Just two days before New Year’s, a 2-year-old accidentally shot and killed his mother at a Wal-Mart in rural Idaho. The victim was Veronica Rutledge, a 29-year-old concealed handgun permit holder. The child had reached into his mother’s purse. Massive news coverage ensued. Tragedies like these make headlines. That’s understandable. But where was the news media on the previous day, when concealed handgun permit holders likely saved multiple lives? — In Fargo, N.D., four people robbed a 36-year-old man and beat him unconscious. Fortunately, a permit holder stopped the attack. “The passer-by, who has a license to carry a concealed...

With just one telephone call this year, Erik Wemple of the Washington Post was able to convince Media Matters to let me respond to their attacks on me in the comments section of their website — after they ignored my emails, telephone calls, numerous tweets and posts for seven years. Media Matters purports to correct misinformation that the “conservative” media puts out, but, ironically, they have systematically hidden comments critical of their work from their readers. They have a blog where it appears that conservatives and others can respond, but they don’t tell their readers that they have regularly removed...

Media Matters has long advertised to the public a commitment to fighting misinformation on the internet, but lately the group seems to be creating misinformation of its own. The nonprofit generally targets Republicans and is regularly cited by pundits and news outlets. More recently, the group engaged in what could best be called a smear campaign against John Lott, an economist, firearms researcher, and Founder of the Crime Prevention Research Center. For more than a decade, Lott has developed a unique public profile as an expert on guns and society, who combines advocacy with substantial data and academic rigor. Media...

As a response to the police shooting of Michael Brown, President Obama proposes $263 million for police training and body cameras. But more police training wouldn’t have prevented the Brown shooting and the president’s proposal plays into the hands of those who blame the police. President Obama has continually undermined police departments around the country, and his demand for more training fits that pattern. With Wilson facing civil suits and Attorney General Eric Holder’s federal investigation still ongoing, the pressures on Officer Wilson are not likely to fade away anytime soon. It’s safe to say that other police officers will...

Exaggerations have poisoned discussions about relations between blacks and the police. “Black men between the ages of 15 and 19 are 21 times as likely as whites to be killed by a police officer,” said Chuck Todd on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.” Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree echoed Todd. “The data is clear, that black boys are being killed by white police officers around the country.” The claim was repeated frequently on other shows. But those numbers aren’t entirely accurate, and they are far from the whole truth. . . . Todd and Ogletree relied on an analysis of FBI...