Free Republic

Democrats are still in denial about Washington, DC’s crime problem, and decrying President Donald Trump’s intervention — but it’s time they face reality. Over the last 12 days, as Trump federalized the DC police force and deployed federal officers on district streets, the city’s shockingly high murder rate screeched to a halt. No homicides were recorded at all in that time frame, a sharp, statistically significant drop that’s far too large to dismiss as mere chance. . . . Statistically, compared to the homicide rate during the first seven months of this year, the odds of that happening by chance...

"I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,” President Trump declared Monday in a Truth Social post. Later that day, he promised an executive order “to end mail-in ballots because they are corrupt. You know we are the only country in the world, I believe, I may be wrong, just about, the only country in the world that uses them because of what happened, massive fraud all over the place.” Trump has remained consistent; even before the 2020 election, he warned: “There is a lot of dishonesty going on with mail-in voting.” Trump doesn’t need...

D.C.’s murder rate ran 169 percent higher than Louisiana’s, the deadliest state, and an astonishing 523 percent higher than that of the average state.Democrats insist Washington, D.C., doesn’t face a crime problem.On a podcast last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D–NY, claimed, “I walk around all the time. I wake up early in the morning … And I feel perfectly safe.” He dismissed Republican concerns about safety as “full of it,” but, of course, Schumer doesn’t go anywhere without his security detail. In a similar vein, D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen called the federalization of law enforcement “unnecessary, unwarranted,” and...

On Wednesday, another mass shooting unfolded — this time at Fort Stewart military base in Georgia. A male Army sergeant, who illegally carried a gun on the base, wounded five soldiers before others tackled and disarmed him. Typically, only authorized designated security forces such as MPs are armed on duty. Any other soldier caught carrying a firearm faces severe consequences, ranging from a rank reduction, court-martial, potential criminal convictions, dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of pay, and even imprisonment. So why would a soldier risk such harsh penalties? Because if you’re the attacker, planning to murder fellow soldiers, gun control laws won’t...

When you let law enforcement catch criminals, you will get less crime. Murder rates are plummeting. While we still have more than half a year to go, Kash Patel, the FBI’s director, says that the U.S. is on track to have the lowest murder rate ever. The current record low occurred in 2014 when the FBI reported a murder rate of 4.45 per 100,000. The question is: why? Law enforcement matters, but it is probably also that Trump is deporting criminal illegal aliens. According to Patel, “Let good cops be cops,” is the answer. “I’m gonna let you, the agents,...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) claims that suppressors make mass public shootings more deadly. Between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 2024, there were 104 mass public shootings, but only two of those involved suppressors (Virginia Beach, Virginia in 2019 and Milwaukee in 2020). The average number of casualties from mass public shootings with suppressors is actually lower than the average without (11 v. 19.8), though the average number of people murdered is exactly the same as (8.5 v. 8.5). Senator Murphy also claims that suppressors will make it so that “no one will be able to hear the gun shots.”...

Democrats actively oppose the Trump administration’s efforts to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, despite the administration’s focus on those with criminal histories.To support their opposition, Democrats frequently claim, almost as an article of faith, that illegal immigrants are less prone to commit crime. “The crime rate among immigrants is far lower than the crime rate among native-born Americans,” New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler asserted confidently. “So the whole issue is wrong.”“Immigrants commit crimes in this country at a rate lower than natural-born citizens,” added Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy. “So, if you want a safe town or a safe neighborhood, you...

The Biden administration authorized federal law enforcement four years ago to target Americans engaged in "concerning non-criminal behavior" in the name of fighting domestic terrorism, with a specific eye on those serving in the military, owning firearms, or spreading what officials considered to be "xenophobic" disinformation, according to newly declassified documents. The stunning breadth of the mandate was disclosed when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently released a fully unredacted version of the prior administration’s "Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism." The June 2021 memo exposed for the first time the law enforcement and intelligence framework that led...

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has declassified a shocking plan by former President Joe Biden’s administration for dealing with domestic terrorists. Last Wednesday, Gabbard released a June 2021 document titled “Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism” (henceforth “the Plan”). But despite the release receiving over 6.3 million views on X by Monday morning, the major media has ignored the document. While Americans are very familiar with many Biden era policies, the newly declassified document reveals that the actions were part of a coordinated action from early in the administration across a wide range of government agencies to target...

The FBI tracks active shooting cases-where individuals attempt to kill people in public places, excluding those tied to robberies or gang violence. This study is the first to systematically compare how uniformed police and civilians with concealed handgun permits perform in stopping these attacks. Civilians with permits stopped the attacks more frequently and faced a lower risk of being killed or injured than police. Officers who intervened during the attacks were far more likely to be killed or injured than those who apprehended the attackers later.

The data is in, and once again, the Second Amendment proves itself to be the best protection against undeserved violence. The Crime Prevention Research Center brought the receipts. According to the findings of a new study from the CPRC, armed civilians “do a better job” than law enforcement officers to stop active shooters, “with fewer mistakes” to boot. Here’s what John R. Lott, Jr., president of the the CPRC, explained of the findings: In non-gun-free zones, where civilians are legally able to carry guns, concealed carry permit holders stopped 51.5 percent of active shootings, compared to 44.6 percent stopped by...

President Biden’s and President Trump’s pardons have generated a lot of controversy. But there are considerable differences between the two sets of pardons, with a two-tiered system of justice unfairly biased against Jan. 6 defendants. Last month, Biden pardoned his son, Hunter. And then, on his last day in office, Biden pardoned five family members. That same day, Trump pardoned 1,500 people who were convicted or facing trial for the Jan. 6 riot. The media’s coverage of these pardons has been dramatically different. Take the New York Times, which describes Biden’s preemptive pardons as a way to “guard” from a...

Would you post a sign announcing that your home is a gun-free zone? Would you feel safer? Criminals don’t obey these signs. In fact, these signs are a magnet for criminals because disarmed victims are seen as easy targets. . . . A deputy in uniform has a difficult job in stopping these attacks,” said Sheriff Kurt Hoffman in Sarasota County, Florida. “These terrorists have strategic advantages in determining the time and place of attacks. They can wait for a deputy to leave the area or pick an undefended location. Even when police or deputies are in the right place...

The testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, American Immigration Council (AIC) estimates that there is an annual cost of $88 billion to deport one million illegal aliens each year. That breaks down to $7 billion for arrests, $66 billion for detentions, $12.6 billion to go through the legal process, and $2.1 billion to transport deportees out of the country. It works out to $88,000 per deportee, but the council claims this is a “highly conservative estimate.” They conclude there is “a total cost of $967.9 billion over the course of more than a decade.” But looking at the per...

For the second year in a row, the Centers for Disease Control has been caught ignoring science and letting liberal interest groups set its policies. In 2021, the American Pediatric Academy and the Children’s Hospital Association tracked COVID-19 statistics in children and the data show no relationship between mask mandates and the rate at which children caught the disease. In the face of this evidence – and other data showing that masks harm children’s development, the CDC supported masking students after being pressured by the National Education Association (the nation’s largest teachers’ union). Now comes word that CDC is again...

A paper at the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), founded by researcher John Lott, shows how faith in the police, arrest rates, and crime reporting are all interrelated. The paper is titled ” The Collapse in Law Enforcement: As Arrest Rates Plummet, People Have Been Less Willing to Report Crime,” published on April 5, 2024. As faith in the police collapses, reporting of crime drops, and so do arrest rates and clearance rates for both violent crimes and property crimes. This has the classic look of a positive feedback loop. The consequences are far from positive. It is not a...

On March 11, 2024, Dr. John Lott debated the eminent law professor Sanford Levinson on the subject: Was the Second Amendment a Mistake? The debate lasted about an hour. It was held at the University of Wisconsin and started at 6:30 p.m. The debate was sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI). The moderator was Professor Ryan Owens.Unlike much of what we see in politics, the debate was cordial and civilized. There was no student protest to prevent Dr. Lott from being able to debate Professor Levinson. Dr. Lott is an eminent scholar on gun control issues. Dr. Levison is...

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

As Joe Biden and the Democrats push harder for tighter gun control across the country, many are pushing back on this idea. One America’s John Hines spoke with Dr. John Lott, the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, to find out more.Gun control measures affect law abiding citizens.Informative five minute video.

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