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Time after time, public murder sprees occur in "gun-free zones" - public places where citizens are not legally able to carry guns. The list is long, including massacres at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School along with many less deadly attacks. Last week's slaughter at Fort Hood Army base in Texas was no different - except that one man bears responsibility for the ugly reality that the men and women charged with defending America were deliberately left defenseless when a terrorist opened fire.

Shouldn't an army base be the last place where a terrorist should be able to shoot at people uninterrupted for 10 minutes? After all, an army base is filled with soldiers who carry guns, right? Unfortunately, that is not the case. Beginning in March 1993, under the Clinton administration, the army forbids military personnel from carrying their own personal firearms and mandates that "a credible and specific threat against [Department of the Army] personnel [exist] in that region" before military personnel "may be authorized to carry firearms for personal protection." Indeed, most military bases have relatively few military police as...

This wasn't supposed to happen. At the end of February, after the $787 billion stimulus was approved, the Obama administration predicted that unemployment would average only 8.1 percent this year. Indeed, in February the unemployment rate stood at 8.1 percent. Yet, unemployment now stands at 10.2 percent and keeps rising. There is also another, wider unemployment measure seldom mentioned. When you count the unemployed who have become so discouraged that they have given up looking for work or have only accepted a part-time job, our country now has an unemployment rate that stands at a staggering 17.5 percent. Confirming these...

The Obama administration claims that it was their passage of massive government spending that saved the United States from another Great Depression. Last week, Larry Summers, Obama's top economic adviser, claimed that because of the stimulus: "We have walked a substantial distance back from the economic abyss and are on the path toward economic recovery. Most importantly, we have seen a substantial change in the trend of job loss." And Vice President Biden declared at the end of September: "In my wildest dreams, I never thought it [the stimulus] would work this well." As President Obama and other Democrats have...

With the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching 10,000, Americans are feeling wealthier. Unfortunately, roughly a third of the increase simply reflects the falling dollar, that American goods and assets are becoming cheaper to the rest of the world. Just as a lower dollar makes it more attractive for foreigners to buy American goods, it also makes it a better deal for foreigners to buy stock in American companies. Over the course of this year, as the value of the dollar rose until the beginning of March, the stock market fell. As the dollar fell during the rest of the year,...

What if you, and every member of your family, had the chance to save $4,000 each?. Would you be interested? Under the terms of what's being called "the Baucus bill" -- Washington-speak for the bill the Senate Finance Committee will vote on tomorrow -- that is how much you could save by dropping your health insurance. People might have thought that health care reform would lead to an increase in the number of people getting health insurance coverage. Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office claims the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill will reduce the number of uninsured in 2019 by...

We spend one-and-a-half times more per person on health care than any other country, but we aren't any healthier for it. -- President Obama in his address to a joint session of Congress on health care on September 9, 2009. If you were seriously ill, what country would you want to be in? That seems like the simple question for comparing health care in different countries. But the numbers being offered by the administration aren't any more useful in answering that question than they were about comparing the cost of health care across countries. . . .

A number frequently tossed around is that a 1/6th of our nation's income is spent on health care. That number comes from $2.2 trillion in reported health care spending out of an almost $14 trillion economy. The President cites those statistics as evidence that the government needs to step in and keep health care spending under control. Yet, there are problems with both claims: The health care costs used in the debate have been inflated by double counting and further distorted by price controls, and the recent growth in US health care expenditures has actually been less than in countries...

"Then there's the problem of rising costs. We spend one-and-a-half times more per person on health care than any other country . . . . health care represents one-sixth of our economy . . . Everyone in this room knows what will happen if we do nothing. Our deficit will grow. More families will go bankrupt. More businesses will close. More Americans will lose their coverage when they are sick and need it most. And more will die as a result." -- President Obama in his address to a joint session of Congress on health care on September 9, 2009....

Whom do Democrats trust more for news: Fox News or the New York Times? With all the vitriol directed against Fox News, one would think that it is a no brainer. But a new Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll shows that it is Fox News. While 43 percent of Democrats have a positive view of Fox News, 39 percent of Democrats feel the same way about the New York Times. Of course among Republicans or Independents it isn't even a close contest. 72 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of Fox News compared to...

"Consumers do better when there is choice and competition. Unfortunately, in 34 states, 75% of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies. In Alabama, almost 90% is controlled by just one company. Without competition, the price of insurance goes up and the quality goes down...an additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange..." -- President Barack Obama, September 9 Two claims are made all the time in the health care debate: 1) that there is little competition among those providing health insurance and...

Two claims are made all the time in the health care debate: 1) that there is little competition among those providing health insurance and 2) that it is important to take the profit motive out of providing health insurance. Both are myths. It turns out that claims about too little competition are based on a misinterpretation of the data and that non-profit insurers are so abundant that the largest insurer in virtually every state is a non-profit. You would probably never know either of these points from listening to the news. Proponents of government provided health insurance, such as President...

Who do Democrats trust more for news: FOX News or The New York Times? With all the vitriol directed against FOX News, one would think that it is a no brainer. But a new Pew Research Center for the People and the Press shows that it is FOX News. While 43 percent of Democrats have a positive view of FOX News, 39 percent of Democrats feel the same way about The New York Times. . . . .

Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will make one more attempt this week to get Republicans to join the Democrats health care reform plans. Some breathed a sigh of relief that his health care bill does not include a government-run insurance program. Those who listened to President Obama's health care address to Congress last week noted that much. But the proposed regulations will destroy private insurance, guaranteeing another debate in a couple of years to fix the disastrous shape that these regulations will leave health care in. The most striking part of the plan is that it is partially paid for it...

Justice Anthony Scalia made a prediction in 2003 when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the McCain-Feingold law in 2003: "if history teaches us anything, [it] is that when you plug one means of expression, the money will go to whatever means of expression are left." The case the Supreme Court heard on Wednesday, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, shows that Justice Scalia was right. The case focused on a movie released during the 2008 presidential campaign, "Hillary: The Movie." It doesn't explicitly advocate that Hillary Clinton be defeated in her bid for the presidency, but no one...

Six, seven, and eight-year-old kids shouldn't be put in a position where they have to say that a particular president is inspiring and such a wonderful person. Next Tuesday, the opening day for many schools across the country, President Obama will give a speech to elementary and secondary students across the country. There is a reason why no president has commanded the time of America's school children in the past to make them listen to the president as part of their school day. Could you imagine the outrage if the president requested time to address adults during their work day...

Last year, President Obama campaigned against budget deficits. Yet, now we have the newly announced figures from the Obama administration stating that the deficits numbers over the next decade will add up to over $9 trillion-- $2 trillion more than had been forecast as recently as March. Even this likely underestimates the deficit by at least another $1 trillion. Looking back, it is hard to believe that the deficits during the Bush administration totaled only about $3 trillion over eight years. Candidate Obama promised to rein in the budget deficit. When CBS's Bob Schieffer asked Obama, during the third presidential...

In Portsmouth, New Hampshire recently, a man carried a handgun a few blocks away from the site where President Obama was scheduled to hold a town hall a couple of hours later. Was it a danger or not? The man carrying the gun, William Kostric, even had permission to have the gun on private church property while he was protesting Obama's appearance. Everybody from the New York Times to USA Today to CBS News expressed their outrage, interpreting it as a hot head threatening the president and linking it to militias and conservative talk radio. A prominent liberal radio talk...

Democrats are fighting the greedy medical insurance and pharmaceutical companies to provide Americans health care, right? Surely anyone who listened to President Obama talk last week in Portsmouth, New Hampshire last Tuesday would think that. But while the Democrats are calling these companies evil for wanting to prevent the government takeover of health care, Democrats are working closely with these very same companies to support President Obama's health care plan. In fact, in exchange for favorable treatment in the health care plan, these companies are financing a massive ad campaign to support it. Referring to insurance companies, House Speaker Nancy...

Over and over again President Obama has promised not to "mess with" private insurance for those who are happy with what they currently have. When challenged, he dismisses it as mere "scare tactics and fear-mongering." In an address to the American Medical Association in June, he accused his opponents: "let me also address a illegitimate concern that's being put forward by those who are claiming that a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system. . . . So when you hear the naysayers claim that I'm trying to bring about government-run health care, know this: They're...

The announcement today that the unemployment rate declined slightly to 9.4 percent in July while only 247,000 additional jobs were lost has been greeted as good news. The change in the unemployment rate puts the rate at what it was in May. Yet, even a rough look at the numbers indicates that the true unemployment rate has been getting significantly worse over the last few months. How is it possible for the unemployment rate to essentially remain unchanged when 247,000 jobs have been lost? The reason is simple -- the number of people who stopped looking for work rose dramatically....

Only in Washington could a program that is spending money 13 times faster than was planned be labeled a "success." The "cash-for-clunkers" program ground to a halt last week because in less than a week, a program that was supposed to last until November 1, had spent the entire $1 billion allocated to it. Let's just hope that the government takeover of the rest of the health care industry doesn't result in similar "success." Unfortunately, the House voted late last week by an overwhelming 316 to 109 margin to spend $2 billion more on the program. The Senate is scheduled...

John Lott [author of More Guns, Less Crime; senior research scientist, University of Maryland]: "By a 58 to 39 majority, the US Senate voted last week to let concealed handgun permit holders carry handguns across state lines. Yet, it was two votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. The legislation sponsored by Senator John Thune (R, SD) would have allowed reciprocity in permitting, as anybody would still be required to obey the laws of the states that they travel in. This is the same way driver's licenses work. The legislation before the senate doesn't really break...

Using recent survey data, this article examines how Canadians compare with insured Americans and uninsured Americans in their level of satisfaction with their health care. The data reveal that the vast majority of Americans, whether insured or uninsured, get timely access to quality care and are satisfied with it. It further finds that for most comparisons, Canadians are experiencing satisfaction levels much closer to that of America’s uninsured than they are to America’s insured.

"I don't know all the facts," that is where President Obama should have begun and ended his statement about the skirmish between Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates and a local Cambridge, Massachusetts police sergeant. But, he couldn't stop himself from saying the police "acted stupidly" and "I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry." Or the next day still defending his statement, saying "I am surprised by the controversy surrounding my statement, because...

Tomorrow morning the US Senate will vote on whether to allow concealed handgun permit holders to carry handguns across state lines. The legislation sponsored by Senator John Thune (R, SD) would only allow reciprocity in permitting, as anybody would still be required to obey the laws of the states that they travel in. This is the same way driver's licenses work. Yet, gun control advocates are predicting the worst. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D, NJ) warns it is an "attempt by the gun lobby to put its radical agenda ahead of safety and security in our communities." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D,...

The stimulus bill "includes help for those hardest hit by our economic crisis," President Obama promised when he signed the bill into law on Feb. 17. "As a whole, this plan will help poor and working Americans." But FOXNews.com has analyzed data tracking how the stimulus money is being given out across the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and it has found a perverse pattern: the states hardest hit by the recession received the least money. States with higher bankruptcy, foreclosure and unemployment rates got less money. And higher income states received more. The transfers to the states...

Politico: “Stimulus tour” “52 of the 66 events were in states that backed Obama.” The other 14 events were in states that Obama lost only narrowly. A new study released by USA Today also finds that counties that voted for Obama received about twice as much stimulus money per capita as those that voted for McCain. "The stimulus bill is designed to help those who have been hurt by the economic downturn.... Do you see disparity out there in where the money is going? Certainly," a Democratic congressional staffer knowledgeable about the process told FOXNews.com. "The people to talk to...

"Is there anything the Senate or Congress can do if a nominee says one thing seated at that table and does something exactly the opposite once they [are on the Supreme Court]?" Senator Arlen Specter asked Judge Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday. When Sotomayor promises her "fidelity" to the rule of law the Senators simply have to trust that she is telling them the truth. Unfortunately, there is significant evidence that Sotomayor has been less than honest in private meetings with the Senators. This past Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported on a series of interviews it had done with Senators...

It isn't that President Obama's policies aren't working. It is just that the economy was so much worse off than anyone realized. -- Or so the Obama administration claims. Vice President Joe Biden repeated the mantra again this past Sunday on ABC's "This Week." Host George Stephanopoulos asked him how the 9.5 percent unemployment rate in June squared with the administration's prediction that if the stimulus package was passed, "unemployment will peak at about 8 percent." Biden replied: "we and everyone else misread the economy. The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of...

With the Supreme Court narrowly striking down Judge Sonia Sotomayor's decision in the New Haven fire fighter's case, it emphasizes the importance of a single vote and there are renewed questions about her judgment on race. It brings back into focus not only her comments on the superiority of certain racial groups and women, but when combined with her recent comments on the Belizean Grove club indicate a very selective and self serving decisions on deciding when discrimination is occurring. Judge Sonia Sotomayor can't take back her seven speeches over a decade where she talked about women's (or Latina women's)...

With the Supreme Court narrowly striking down Judge Sonia Sotomayor's decision in the New Haven fire fighter's case, it emphasizes the importance of a single vote and there are renewed questions about her judgment on race. It brings back into focus not only her comments on the superiority of certain racial groups and women, but when combined with her recent comments on the Belizean Grove club indicate a very selective and self serving decisions on deciding when discrimination is occurring. Judge Sonia Sotomayor can't take back her seven speeches over a decade where she talked about women's (or Latina women's)...

As the Obama administration pushes for a national health care plan, studies show that most Americans are overwhelmingly happy with their own health care -- but they are dissatisfied with the country's overall system, because most Americans who have insurance believe that those who don't have it are not receiving care. Those same studies, however, show that a surprisingly large 70 percent of the estimated 46 million Americans who don't have insurance say they do, in fact, receive health care, and that a vast majority of them are satisfied with it. A survey conducted jointly by the Kaiser Family Foundation,...

President Obama is selling government health insurance to the American people as the way to save money. That government health insurance will merely provide competition to keep private insurance companies from gouging their customers. Indeed, Obama even claimed on Monday, in a speech before the American Medical Association, that a government insurance system is essential to holding down medical costs: “if we fail to act, federal spending on Medicaid and Medicare will grow over the coming decades . . . . and impose a vicious choice of either unprecedented tax hikes, overwhelming deficits, or drastic cuts in our federal and...

Has the $787 billion stimulus package worked? In California last Wednesday, President Obama declared, “we are already seeing results.” That is in line with the predictions Obama and his advisers made when they warned of dire consequences if the stimulus did not pass. “If we fail to act, we are likely to lose millions more jobs and the unemployment rate could reach double digits,” Christina Romer, Obama’s chairwoman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, warned on February 4. Obama agreed. “If we do not act, a bad situation will become dramatically worse. Crisis could turn into catastrophe for families...

So much for any hope that the government would uphold rules and abiding by contracts. Instead, we keep getting examples of something else – that when President Obama fails to persuade firms to follow his wishes, he does not hesitate to use threats of financial destruction. Cliff Asness, the co-founder of the $20 billion hedge fund AQR Capital Management, laid bare the latest attacks with an open letter on Wednesday: “The President screaming that the hedge funds are looking for an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout is the big lie writ large. Find me a hedge fund that has been bailed out....

Senior research scientist, John Lott will discuss 'Freedomnomics,' his simple formula that can unlock and explain puzzling and curious policy issues, politically incorrect topics, and subjects you have wondered about. Hosted by George Noory.

Senior research scientist, John Lott will discuss 'Freedomnomics,' his simple formula that can unlock and explain puzzling and curious policy issues, politically incorrect topics, and subjects you have wondered about. Hosted by George Noory..

“If you got health insurance, then you can keep it . . . and we won’t do anything about that,” at least that was what President Obama promised during the campaign last year. Well, add that to a very long list of broken campaign promises, including: cutting government spending, reducing the deficit, and “no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.” Just as bad, on Friday it was revealed that Obama and the Democrats have no problem pushing through Senate votes on these radical health care changes that strip away normal procedural protections...

Gun control advocates look desperate. Last Friday night, on April 10, ABC aired a heavily promoted, hour long “20/20″ special called “If I Only Had a Gun.” It is ABC’s equivalent of NBC’s infamous exploding gas tanks in General Motors pickups where NBC rigged the truck to explode. With legislation in Texas and Missouri advancing to eliminate gun-free zones at universities, perhaps this response isn’t surprising. The show started and ended by claiming that allowing potential victims to carry guns would not help keep them safe –- not even with hundreds of hours of practice firing guns. No mention was...

Gun control advocates look desperate. Last Friday night, on April 10, ABC aired a heavily promoted, hour long “20/20″ special called “If I Only Had a Gun.” It is ABC’s equivalent of NBC’s infamous exploding gas tanks in General Motors pickups where NBC rigged the truck to explode. With legislation in Texas and Missouri advancing to eliminate gun-free zones at universities, perhaps this response isn’t surprising. The show started and ended by claiming that allowing potential victims to carry guns would not help keep them safe –- not even with hundreds of hours of practice firing guns. No mention was...

My interview with CSPAN today can be seen here. This interview covers a very wide range of current gun control issues. I think that this interview went very well. I hope that people find it helpful.

Teacher unions are ecstatic. It is only April and President Obama has already delivered most of their many wishes. The “stimulus” package gave teachers large salary increases. And over the pleading of D.C.’s mayor and residents, Obama will phase out the voucher system for poor D.C. residents. Now public school teachers and administrators in the District of Columbia do not need to worry about trying to improve, as the competition was wiped out by the stroke of a pen. Poor D.C. parents no longer have a chance to send their children to private schools such as the ones the Obamas...

Time after time multiple victim public shootings occur in gun free zones, public places where citizens are not legally able to carry guns. The horrible attack today in Binghamton, New York is no different. Every multiple victim public shooting that I have studied where more than three people have been killed has taken place where guns are banned. You would think that it would be an important part of the news stories for a simple reason: Gun-free zones are a magnet for these attacks. Extensive discussions of these attacks can be found here and here. We want to keep people...

When Tim Kaine campaigned for Virginia governor in 2005, he ran an ad implying that former National Rifle Association President Charlton Heston was praising him. His campaign claimed that "Tim Kaine strongly supports the Second Amendment." Once he won office, Mr. Kaine vetoed one gun bill after another that would have helped Virginians protect themselves from criminals. Unfortunately, this past week, Mr. "strong Second Amendment supporter" Kaine vetoed all five pro-self-defense bills sent to his desk. His intransigence endangers public safety. Hopefully, the General Assembly's veto-override session, which starts today, can correct those mistakes. All five vetoed bills passed with...

In a truly unprecedented move, the Obama administration has gotten into hand picking the CEO of a private company. This has never happened in US history. It is also something that doesn’t seem to have occurred in leftist Europe at least since World War II. Obama claimed Monday that he has “no interest or intention” of running the auto industry. But, whatever Obama’s rhetoric, it is now his industry. Picking CEOs is just the surface. In Obama’s speech he boasted that “my team will be working closely with GM to produce a better business plan,” but who is Obama kidding?...

- Big Hollywood - http://bighollywood.breitbart.com - ‘Chuck’ Teaches Us Not To Leave Our Gun At HomePosted By John Lott On March 26, 2009 @ 10:47 am In Entertainment, Politics | No Comments [1] The TV series “[2] Chuck” this last week had some dialogue on the benefits of carrying one’s gun with them ([3] Chuck Versus the Predator). Chuck ([4] Zachary Levi)  formulated a mission at the Buy More electronic store and insisted the team — Sarah ([5] Yvonne Strahovski) and Casey ([6] Adam Baldwin) — not carry guns. Chuck then gets captured by a Fulcrum Agent… Fulcrum Agent: (speaking...

Last Friday, Lawrence Summers, the White House Economics adviser, blamed a fearful public for dragging the economy down and said that there was an “excess of fear.” Summers is right that an “excess of fear” has really harmed the economy and that that the downturn has been much sharper than it had to be. Fear has scared consumers into changing their spending decisions. Businesses that would have gotten money from those consumers have had to change their plans and cut back on employment. The increase in unemployment is temporary as the money hasn’t disappeared, but simply gone to other places...

The season finale of “Burn Notice,” entitled “Lesser Evil,” involves Michael Weston (Jeffrey Donovan) trying to keep both himself and Madeline Weston, his mom (Sharon Gless), safe from some angry spies. Madeline and Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell) are surrounded by those bad spies and Madeline makes what to many may seem like an obvious suggestion. Madeline Weston: Should I call the police? Sam Axe: No, that would make it way too easy for them. Cops take us to the station — they know where we are and they know that we are unarmed. The segment reminded me of an even...

Late night comedians have had a difficult problem. Presidents are usually the source of most late night joke, but comedians are having a hard time finding any material to make jokes about President Obama. This isn’t anything new, it was also true during the campaign. Possibly they just need some help. Could you imagine if Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush had used a teleprompter to answer questions during a press conference? The late night joke writers wouldn’t have let it go until the President gave in to the merciless ridicule as he was painted as an idiot who couldn’t...