At the 2015 SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, I got a chance to meet the legend himself, John Lott Jr. I’ve been covering the gun beat for over three years now and this is the first time I had a chance to meet Lott in person. What a treat! To say that they guy is bright is like saying the Grand Canyon is big. The truth is that Lott is a genius. And if you’re someone who needs to see the credentials to believe it, he’s got those, in spades I might add: He holds a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA, and has held research or teaching positions at various academic institutions including the University of Chicago, Yale University, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, and Rice University.
Lott has also written eight books, including his tour de force “More Guns, Less Crime.” We talked briefly about the central thesis of that book, which as the title suggests, shows a negative correlation between gun ownership and crime rates, in other words, as more citizens carry concealed firearms for self-defense crime actually decreases. When I asked Lott about the book, he phrased thusly, “Gun ownership by law-abiding individuals has a big life-saving effect in terms of reducing violence…”
Put more succinctly, guns save lives. While we — gun owners, sportsmen, hunters, Second Amendment advocates — know that, not everyone else does. While the public’s ignorance on this issue is concerning, what’s even more troubling is former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg quest to convince the public that guns are the scourge of a civilized society. I asked Lott about this, particularly, what lies the Bloomberg machine has been pumping out to achieve that objective.
Lott gave a few examples, such as the supposed risk that woman face from gun ownership and inflated stats with respect to school shootings. To take the latter example, Lott said that in the studies Bloomberg funds on school shootings, there will be a case where “Somebody used a gun defensively to save themselves from two attackers” and it will be classified “as a Newtown-type shooting.”
He then added, “I mean, it’s bizarre.” I’d argue that it’s not only bizarre, as Lott said, but downright mischievous. Prof. Lott said that we can find in-depth reporting on these examples on his website: crimepreventionresearchcenter.org.
Another interesting topic that popped up during our conversation was the lack of media attention paid to defensive gun uses, instances like the aforementioned where a good guy (or gal) with a gun stops or thwarts a criminal act. While Fox News is now giving attention to DGU stories, other major networks — ABC, NBC, CBS — have been slow to the draw.
Lott observed, “I think that has a big impact on people’s perception about the costs and benefits of gun ownership.”
Indeed. If all the non-gun owning public hears is bad news stories related to gun ownership, that will undoubtedly influence the way they think about firearms, gun owners and the larger gun community.
While we wait for the media to get on the 2A bandwagon (don’t hold your breath), thankfully, in the meantime, we have Lott and his team working tirelessly to spread the truth about guns and gun ownership. They need our help though. So make sure you do your part whenever you can.
Never let them be instructed in bull shit when you can instruct them in facts and reality.Explain to them if they want true facts stop watching lamestream media and watch Fox news.
A year ago my wife and I bought our first gun. I was looking for something to protect myself in the middle of the night when doing rounds on the farm. Then it seems the **** hit the fan and now we are happy to have it for home protection as well.
Previous to owning a gun I was not anti gun but quite frankly I had no thoughts on guns at all. However, I am now very pro gun and read all I can to understand how to fight to keep our rights. Every day I read about anti gunners who say and do things that make no sense. The problem is that there are many out there hearing this baloney that are like I used to be. They don’t have any reason to doubt that what they are being told is true. We all know people like this. We must take every opportunity to let them know the truth.
If you haven’t yet you should consider joining the NRA.
It’s a well informed outfit and the publications they send you will give you a large amount of valuable insight about the battle we all are fighting to keep our constitutional rights intact despite the onslaught being mounted against our second amendment rights from Bloomberg and his various groups of well funded anti gun groups.
Absolutely! We are Americans and it is our right! not privilege! if you commit a crime with a gun then u loose that right but other wise as a law abiding citizen I should be able to carry a side arm! As a cop every time I hear of someone getting killed I think if only I or someone else with a gun was here this wouldn’t have happened!
If you need mainstream media news networks to instruct you how to think you might be a ignoramus, or liberal as the case may be…
Joe, Lott isn’t proposing those of us with a grasp of reality and ability to think turn to the leftist/liberal “lamestream” media as a source of “information”. Lott obviously is hoping that some elements of truth about firearms will miraculously appear on ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, etc to perhaps cause the sheeple low-info voters to achieve a glimmer of reality.
Your link for “crimepreventionresearchcenter.org.” is borked. It wants to open to:
“http://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/john-lott-bloombergs-lies-bizarre-shot-show-2015/He%20said%20that%20we%20can%20find%20in-depth%20reporting%20on%20these%20examples%20on%20his%20website:%20crimepreventionresearchcenter.org.”
Instead of “http://crimepreventionresearchcenter.org”.
Thanks Onedee for the correct link
Internationally we are faced with scenes of tens of thousands of people fleeing from religious fanatics, who are telling them to get out, convert or die. Young women are being kidnapped to serve as sex slaves to these lunatics. Instead of sending in the Seals or spending a year training an army of “moderates”, the US should apply fundamental American values. Supply people and train them in the use of small arms. It would make life a lot harder for the fanatics as well as the wife beaters and there would be fewer appeals for outsiders to “do something” to stop thousands from freezing and starving to death on some mountain they have escaped to. Of course it would also make life difficult for these oppressive governments we support.
That’s the worst idea ever. Instead of the shit show that is Iraq, let’s turn it into Somalia, because that’s so much better. The more guns less crime thing only applies to civilized people.
Evan, I think you’re on to something. More guns equals less crime only applies to civilized people. You could make a case that “uncivilized” areas in US like inner cities of Chicago or New York should therefore be made gun free, while other more civilized areas allow guns. I’m actually quite serious about that, although don’t know how it could be done in a fair way…the 2nd and all that…