The War on Guns, John Lott’s Important New Book

Ricochet ^ | August 12, 2016 | Tim Groseclose

[richardb72]

John Lott, Jr., a PhD economist who has published scores of peer-reviewed articles in top journals, has written an outstanding and important new book, The War on Guns. It is, I believe, the most important document ever written about guns.

The book has many outstanding aspects. One is Lott’s careful review of many studies that the media often cite in order to bolster arguments in favor of additional restrictions on guns. Often, Lott uses his exceptional training in statistics to expose major flaws in these studies. A second outstanding aspect of the book is Lott’s documentation of several cases where anti-gun advocates have been dishonest or deceptive in presenting their evidence.

For this review, however, I focus on a third outstanding aspect of the book. This is the many powerful and interesting facts and anecdotes that fill the book. Like many Ricochet readers, I consider myself a news junkie; e.g., I probably consult the Drudge Report at least a dozen times a day and I probably listen to or watch a couple hours of talk radio or cable news each day. As a consequence, when I read a book on politics or current events, I’m often already familiar with many of the book’s anecdotes. Not so with Lott’s book. I’d estimate that approximately every fifth page or so I learned a new fact or anecdote that I now consider very important.

You might think that I’d be very pleased when learning these facts or anecdotes. However, my reaction was usually the opposite. Instead, I’d often think, “Why haven’t the media — not even the conservative media — reported these facts? What is wrong with our system of government and media, when most people have no knowledge of these facts?” . . .

[Grampa Dave]

Just ordered a free sample on Kindle.

If I like it, I will buy both the hard back and full version on Kindle.

[CivilWarBrewing]

All I know is that if Hillary is elected, her war on guns will trigger American Revolution/Civil War and I say this with all seriousness.

[Elsie]

All I know is that if Hillary is elected, her war on guns will trigger American Revolution/Civil War and I say this with all seriousness.

Sometimes Samson just has to be captured so that he can bring down the entire temple.

[HKMk23]

Salient.

And the parallels are stunning:
Samson was captured after betraying the source of his strength to his enemies.
Samson’s enemies robbed him of his vision.
Imprisoned, Samson’s enemies treated him like a dumb an animal.
Samson’s enemies became complacent, and brought him out of prison to mock him.
Samson pounced on that mistake, and killed them all.

Sic semper tyrannis.

[kearnyirish2]

While our military and militarized police are well-armed, the fact is that low-tech enemies have repeatedly beaten them in the recent past. Iraqi and Afghans didn’t need aircraft carriers to beat us, and a few black domestic terrorists showed how vulnerable our internal security forces are.