Free Republic

Nobody wants dangerous people to get guns. To some, the obvious solution is “red-flag” laws, which take away the guns of people deemed dangerous to themselves or others. Last week’s largely party-line vote in New Mexico’s Senate shows that these laws are more controversial than normally understood (“Senate passes ‘red-flag’ gun bill,” Feb. 8). But a better alternative already exists. This alternative is commonly known as Baker Act statutes (New Mexico’s is called “civil commitments”), and they have been around in all states, most since the early 1970s. They allow police, doctors and family members to have someone typically held...

The attack on the West Freeway Church of Christ reminds us of an important truth that too many still deny: Concealed-permit gun holders save lives. And in today’s world, they and their weapons should be welcomed in churches and other houses of worship. Within seconds of the shooter opening fire on the Texas congregation Sunday, he was shot dead by two parishioners with concealed handgun permits, one of them a former FBI agent. Four other parishioners had their concealed handguns drawn, ready to respond. The attacker killed two congregants before he was taken down, but the death toll could have...

This attacker definitely picked the wrong church to attack. As the picture shows, there were multiple parishioners with permitted concealed handguns. Three people, including the murderer, were shot in attack just before 10 a.m. at the West Freeway Church of Christ at 1900 south Las Vegas Trail in White Settlement, which is near Fort Worth. The Shooter died at the scene after being shot by two of the parishioners. Here are a couple of quotes from the top video.

Tucker Carlson interviewed Nikki Goeser on Fox News about her new book “Stalked and Defenseless: How Gun Control Helped My Stalker Murder My Husband in Front of Me.” The case illustrates how gun-free zones disarm law-abiding citizens who obey the law and not criminals. Indeed, criminals are attracted to these gun-free zones because they know that their victims can’t defend themselves.

Everyone wants to stop dangerous people from getting guns. The hot new policy option before this committee is Red Flag laws, which take away the guns of people deemed dangerous to themselves or others. But there is a much more effective alternative already in place. They are known as Baker Act statutes (Pennsylvania’s is called the “Mental Health Procedures Act”), and have been around since the early 1970s. They allow police, doctors and family members to have someone typically held in most states for a 72-hour mental health examination based upon a simple reasonableness test – little more than a...

Dr. John Lott talked about his book, The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies, on gun control in America and the myth that he believe surround it.

A leading gun rights advocate has warned upcoming legislation in Congress could threaten Second Amendment rights. One America’s John Hines has more from Washington. Video here: https://www.oann.com/dr-john-lott-upcoming-legislation-may-threaten-second-amendment/

The night before Kate Nixon and 11 others were murdered by a disgruntled co-worker, the decade-long Virginia Beach city employee talked with her husband about bringing a gun to work for self-defense -- a decision that was taken out of her hands by the city's ban on employees carrying firearms at work, a Nixon family lawyer said. Now, Nixon's family is calling for an independent investigation into events leading up to the May 31 shooting and what could have been done differently before and during it, particularly given the explicit concerns about shooter DeWayne Craddock. “Kate expressed to her husband...

Another horrifying attack and immediately gun control politicians and organizations are calling for more gun control laws. Former VP Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former congressman Beto O’Rourke, Cory Booker and many others put out calls for more gun control within a few hours of the tragedy. The question of “How many more?” is a question that we ask ourselves all the time. Now the desire “to do something” is very understandable, but let’s try to do something that would actually matter. Here is something that people might want to consider. Virginia Beach bans...

Pennsylvania Democrats want to register your guns. On March 15, state House Representatives Angel Cruz (D-Philadelphia), Mary Isaacson (D-Philadelphia) and Mary Jo Daley (D-Montgomery) proposed the Firearms Registration Act, from which only antiques and guns owned by law enforcement would be exempt. Gov. Tom Wolf strongly supports the bill. “The bill would require Pennsylvanians seeking to do anything with a gun, whether that be own, possess, sell or transfer, to apply for gun registration through State Police,” said Cruz. “This (Pennsylvania State Police) database will aid all law enforcement officials with investigations and with tracking missing or stolen firearms.” State...

The national Sunday morning talk shows blamed President Trump for the New Zealand massacre that left 50 dead. CNN’s Jake Tapper warned: “I don’t think moderate Republicans are doing enough to hold President Trump accountable for his rhetoric.” NBC’s Chuck Todd noted supposed parallels to the killer’s rhetoric, and asked: “When the president uses the term ‘invaders,’ does that dehumanize to the point where it can get misused?” The media made Mr. Trump its singular target, but not even Democrats were completely spared from the frenzy of critical reactions. In a viral video, an angry NYU student confronted Chelsea Clinton...

The Washington Post called the New Zealand mosque shooting “one of the worst cases of right-wing terrorism in years.” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the killer "an extremist, right-wing, violent terrorist." “The person giving a sign of allegiance to President Trump is the killer here,” said CNN’s John Berman. “He called him a symbol of white identity. The language he uses in this manifesto is all about invaders. It is all about invaders, similar to the killer at the synagogue in Pittsburgh and language President Trump used in a campaign ad before the midterm election. The word invader means...

Democrats in the U.S. House are likely to approve spending $50 million in taxpayer funds for public health research on gun violence. While that may sound like a good idea at first glance, it really wouldn’t do anything to reduce gun violence in our country. I testified Thursday before the House Appropriations Committee’s health subcommittee to inject facts into the discussion of the Democratic bill. It should go without saying that everyone opposes gun violence. But it’s important to take effective measures to deal with this problem and not simply take actions that sound appealing but won’t really save lives....

The U.S. House is voting on Tuesday, February 26th, 2019 to impose universal gun background checks. But the fact is, if these rules had been in place, they would not have prevented a single mass public shooting in recent years. Instead, they stop law-abiding citizens from owning a gun, most often poor people and minorities. Everyone wants to stop bad guys from getting guns, but universal background checks is just not an effective way to do that.

One can never wear out Walter Lippmann’s observation that journalists traffic in stereotypes, not only because they enable “economy of effort.” The stereotypes we embrace also assure us of our own status, such that “any disturbance of the stereotypes seems like an attack upon the foundations of the universe.” This has been nicely demonstrated in the controversy over the Covington Catholic High School students at the Lincoln Memorial. A snippet of video was confidently interpreted as showing an encounter between racist white teenage male students and a dignified Native American Vietnam veteran solemnly banging on his drum in communion with...

Dr. John R. Lott, Jr. spoke with the Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur about how universal background checks disarm poor minorities. The also debated whether more guns mean less crime. Regarding claims about how crime rates vary across nations see here and how crime rates change after guns are banned see here. In reference to the graph on mass public shootings that Cenk shows see the paper discussed here. Lott wasn’t able to see the graph when he was talking to Cenk Uygur, but he was correct guessing that they were relying on numbers from Adam Lankford at the University of...

Should schools have teachers carry guns? Abstract With 20 states having teachers and staff carrying guns to varying degrees on school property, we don’t need to guess how the policy would work. Fears of teachers carrying guns in terms of accidents or other problems have not materialized. Letting teachers carry is the only effective way to overcome the strategic advantages of mass public killers. The other alternatives to preventing mass public shootings have real limits.

Dozens of news outlets reported that America has the most mass shooters in the world. Many say that shows America needs more gun control. CNN claimed that "the U.S. has the most mass shootings". The WSJ reported that "U.S. leads the world in mass shootings." Nearly every major media outlet and former President Obama said the same. But the claim is based on just one study, and the author of that study, Adam Lankford, would not release his data to other gun reseachers in the field. Economist John Lott argues that Lankford's study has many flaws. Lott is the author...

Please download a copy of this important new report: Abstract The U.S. is well below the world average in terms of the number of mass public shootings, and the global increase over time has been much bigger than for the United States. Over the 18 years from 1998 to 2015, our list contains 2,354 attacks and at least 4,880 shooters outside the United States and 53 attacks and 57 shooters within our country. By our count, the US makes up less than 1.15% of the mass public shooters, 1.49% of their murders, and 2.20% of their attacks. All these are...

The media and Democrats were apoplectic about President Trump’s comments after the horrific shooting attack at the Pittsburgh synagogue. For the most part, the media viewed his condolences as pitch-perfect. What upset them were Trump’s remarks about gun control. When asked whether the shooting meant that we should have more gun laws, Trump responded, “Well, again, this has little to do with it. If they had protection inside, the results would have been far better. This is a dispute that will always exist, I suspect.” A New York Times news article referred to “the president’s assertion that gun laws had...