Free Republic

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...

Was Donald Trump calling for Hillary Clinton's assassination when he spoke on Tuesday in North Carolina? The New York Times sure seems to think so. This was Trump's apparently offensive quote: "Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know." Suppose the phrase Second Amendment people had been replaced with any other special-interest group. Would there be any claims that Trump was threatening assassinations? In a Newsweek interview on Monday, Hillary Clinton excoriated...

Apple’s next iPhone and iPad operating system will no longer feature an emoji picture of a handgun. In its place will be an emoji of a green, plastic squirt gun. There is nothing particularly threatening about the current handgun picture. You only see the side of the gun; it isn’t pointed at the reader or anyone else. No bullets are even being fired. The whole idea to drop the handgun emoji came about through a lobbying effort started by New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. The bomb, sword, knife, and axe emojis will stay. Apparently, a bomb with a lit fuse...

On Tuesday night, the mother of Trayvon Martin praised Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia for having “the courage to lead the fight for common-sense gun legislation.” Numerous other speakers also raised the gun control issue at the DNC, too. But Wednesday night was clearly “gun night.” From Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) to former Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to former Representative Gabby Giffords and her husband, NASA Astronaut Mark Kelly to others, a string of speakers pushed for more gun control. When President Obama addressed the crowd he also pushed the notion of changing background checks...

Democrats have been using their convention speeches this week to make Hillary Clinton look like a can-do politician. On Tuesday, Bill Clinton flatly declared, “She’s a natural leader, she’s a good organizer, and she’s the best darn change-maker I ever met in my entire life.” We heard speech after speech about how Hillary cares about the children, about her innovative ability to solve problems. But there is a reason the speeches lack specific examples. Hillary wasn’t much of a change-maker in the U.S. Senate. Sure, being president is different from being a senator, but both jobs require making deals. Both...

Hours before the murders of five police officers in Dallas, Texas, President Obama was again spouting false claims about racism by the police. He sees racism whenever there is any disparity in outcomes, no matter what the cause. Obama and others inflame passions, but take no responsibility, and instead use events to push for more gun control. Yet, shouting racism can endanger the lives of police officers. The Dallas police chief tells us one of the shooters “wanted to kill white people, especially white officers.” After the Trayvon Martin case, there were numerous cases around the country of blacks attacking...

Hillary Clinton likely dodged criminal charges Tuesday for a simple reason: the bar for bringing criminal charges against a politician, particularly a high public official, is so much higher than they are for anyone else. Prosecutions against such high public officials only go forward when there is “definitive” evidence. Evidence that prosecutors know will lead to a certain conviction. Why do I say that? Because earlier in my career I was chief economist at the United States Sentencing Commission. I worked frequently with prosecutors. The reputational loss public officials face from criminal charges can be so great that prosecutors feel...

Dr. John Lott appeared on CNN International to discuss the issue of gun-free zones and the push for more gun control laws. (Saturday, June 18, 2016 from 2:33 to 2:37 AM and Tuesday, June 21, 2016 12:33 to 12:37 AM)

In Orlando on Thursday, President Obama again called on Congress to do something about these mass public shootings. But the dirty secret about the four different bills that the Senate will vote on Monday is that everyone knows that none of them would have stopped the Orlando massacre. Indeed, none of the bills would have stopped any of the mass public shootings since at least 2000. Everyone wants to do something to stop these attacks, but the one thing that we know does matter -- ending gun-free zones – are being completely ignored in the legislation. Since at least as...

On Friday singer Christina Grimmie’s was murdered in a gun-free zone in Orlando. Early this morning, at least 50 people were fatally shot at an Orlando night club — also a gun-free zone. Since at least 1950, only slightly over 1 percent of mass public shootings have occurred where general citizens have been able to defend themselves. Police are extremely important in stopping crime, but even if they had been present at the time of the nightclub shooting, they may have had a very difficult time stopping the attack. Attackers will generally shoot first at any uniformed guards or officers...

Thursday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 7-4 decision that Americans don’t have a right to carry concealed handguns for protection. Since California bans people from openly carrying guns, their decision amounted to prohibiting people from carrying guns at all (whether openly or concealed). It is clear that a judge’s political affiliation determines whether he thinks that people have a right to defend themselves. Democratic judges are now moving to overturn recent Supreme Court decisions that struck down bans on guns. Last year, about 0.24 percent of adult Californians had a concealed handgun permit. In the rest...

A Hillary Clinton appointee to the Democrat Platform Committee, Bonnie Schaefer, is the one who made the statement that "I really don't personally think anyone should have a gun." VIDEO AVAILABLE

Alan Berlow quotes one person who isn’t worried about gun registration leading to confiscation (“Gun Control That Actually Works,” May 31). But this isn’t very assuring. In 2013, New York City used registration lists to confiscate guns. Americans have seen this happen in California, Chicago, and Connecticut. Evidence suggests registration has not been important to solving crimes. The D.C. police department stated in a 2013 deposition that it could not “recall any specific instance where registration records were used to determine who committed a crime.” Despite registration since 1960, Hawaii has had a similar experience. In 2012, the Royal Canadian...

Katie Couric's gun control movie has gotten a lot of criticism for fraudulently editing a discussion with the Virginia Defense League. Just earlier today apologized today for the misleading edits. EPIX has just announced that it is no longer showing the movie here. The two might not be unrelated. Will Apple now pull the movie from iTunes?

President Obama is taking a big step towards creating a national gun registry. Hawaii looks like it is about to provide the federal government with the list of all the gun owners in the state. Supposedly, keeping a list of gun owners’ names will enable the FBI to tell police if a gun owner ever gets arrested. But a national gun registry isn’t necessary to do this check. The FBI isn’t the only organization that can do background checks on already existing gun owners. Hawaii already has a gun registry, and can regularly run its list of names to see...

At a White House conference on Tuesday with representatives of state and local law enforcement from all 50 states, Vice President Joe Biden asserted that an “overwhelming majority” of Americans fully support so-called smart guns — firearms that can only be fired by a particular person. Biden claimed that this technology “could have gigantic payoff for us” in saving lives and reducing gun-related violence. Now, President Obama wants to use federal grants to encourage police departments to buy “smart guns” for officers. The idea is to prevent officers’ guns from being used against them. In reality, this technology is more...

CPRC's Dr. John Lott talked to Coast-to-Coast AM's large audience about President Obama's push for smart guns.

CPRC’s John Lott talked to Larry Elder on his national radio show about Australia’s gun buyback and discussed his testimony before the Australia Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee. They also talked about Hillary Clinton’s comparison of the gun buyback to Obama’s Cash for Clunkers program. (8:40 to 8:55 PM on Monday, May 2, 2016)

What does Hillary Clinton really believe on guns? This year, she is running to the left of Bernie Sanders. In 2008, she ran well to the right of Obama, arguing against any kind of federal “blanket rules.” On Wednesday, Hillary Clinton gave an address at Philadelphia’s St. Paul’s Baptist Church. With a nod to Pennsylvania’s high rate of gun ownership, she declared: “There is a Second Amendment, there are constitutional rights. We aren’t interested in taking away guns of lawful, responsible gun owners.” But in New York City in the fall, she told donors: “The Supreme Court is wrong on...

Private gun ownership was banned in Venezuela in June 2012, but their homicide rate went from 73 per 100,000 people in 2012 to 82 per 100,000 people in 2015. The BBC seriously repeats the Venezuelan government’s claim that the ban is an “attempt by the government to improve security and cut crime.” The ban was preceded by an amnesty to get people to turn in their guns. The video gives some idea of what life is like in Venezuela these days. As the homicide rate was already rising before the gun ban and Venezuela is such a mess of a...