Free Republic

In his newest book, Dumbing Down the Courts: How Politics Keeps The Smartest Judges Off The Bench, John R. Lott, Jr. examines the increasing role of courts in American life and the consequent difficulty excellence judicial nominees face over confirmation—especially if they are not invested in liberal ideology. Lott shows that we have reached a point where the more fit a nominee is for the bench—via his or her accomplishments, educational honors, and experience—the more unfit he or she may be viewed in the confirming process. And this is more true for Republican nominees than for Democrats. Lott examines how...

Unless you are a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, you probably have never heard of Lillian BeVier. BeVier graduated at the top of her class from Stanford Law School in 1965, where she worked as an editor of the prestigious Stanford Law Review. She went on to receive multiple distinguished awards throughout her career in private practice before joining the University of Virginia law faculty in 1973. By 1991, she was the perfect candidate with ideal credentials when President George H.W. Bush nominated her for a vacancy on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Yet...

Two weeks ago, the Washington Post declared the recall elections of two powerful state senators in Colorado a national “referendum on guns.” Indeed, the defeat of state-senate president John Morse and fellow state senator Angela Giron will cause some Democrats to rethink their push on gun control. But of course, many Democrats have reacted by shrugging off the results. Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has dismissed the losses as the result of “voter suppression, pure and simple” (orchestrated by the National Rifle Association and the Koch brothers, of course). Mark Glaze, executive director of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against...

Friday’s new job numbers show something workers already knew: they face a very bleak job market. Unfortunately, Americans have been facing tough times for many years now. According to the latest Gallup poll, Obama’s job approval rating on the economy stands at just 35 percent. After over four years, this continues to be, by far, the worst recovery on record. And that goes for income as well as for job growth. Too often the media’s gauge of whether the economy is improving rests solely on the number of jobs created or the unemployment rate. And indeed, 169,000 jobs were added...

In the days since 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by 28-year-old George Zimmerman, a common claim has been: "we will never know what happened between Zimmerman and Martin since the only person who knows the truth and is still alive is Zimmerman." But this statement is not accurate. Zimmerman's defense rested its case Wednesday. And the truth is, we know a lot about what happened on that fateful night. Trayvon Martin's testimony, could he have spoken, wouldn't changed anything. For those who have watched the trial, ask yourself: is there even one piece of convincing evidence that Zimmerman...

Gun control, any already difficult task, just got even more difficult. The 3D printing revolution is well under way. This wonderful new technology will allow small companies and even individuals to manufacture a wide range of items, such as medical devices that fit each individual’s unique size and shape. However, it is increasingly obvious that guns and gun parts can be made, even including entire assault weapons. Unfortunately, the initial regulatory proposals will likely increase crime. As usual, new technology is hard to stop, and the Department of Homeland Security last week declared: "Limiting access [to 3D-printing to make guns]...

First, some background about me: I am a Ph.D.-holder and tenured professor whose immersion in the insular politics of academia had led me to harbor many negative perceptions about firearms. Though I was never staunchly "anti-gun," I was not a gun owner, did not understand the appeal of firearms, and generally believed that gun control legislation was only common sense. That changed four years ago when I (finally) decided to look into the data on guns, crime, and public safety for myself. I am a trained researcher, but I conducted my research for personal not professional reasons. My wife was...

You can tell the conservatives liberals fear most because they start being automatically referred to as "discredited." Ask Sen. Ted Cruz. But no one is called "discredited" by liberals more often than the inestimable economist John Lott, author of the groundbreaking book More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws. Lott's economic analysis of the effect of concealed-carry laws on violent crime is the most thoroughly vetted study in the history of economics, perhaps in the history of the world. Some nut Dutch professor produces dozens of gag studies purportedly finding that thinking about red meat makes people...

Everyone wants to keep criminals from getting guns. However, expanded background checks are not the simple answer that Sens. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) think they are. Unfortunately, as the Senate considers the Manchin-Toomey amendment, Toomey is simply wrong to assert: "It's the people who fail a criminal or mental-health background check who we don't want having guns." Toomey apparently does not understand how the background-check system works. Take his claim on Sunday: "Since checks began in 1998, more than 100,000 people who are ineligible to own guns have been denied them each year." Just because...

Will Senate Democrats be able to end debate on their new gun control bill Tuesday night? President Obama says that it is “not right” to continue the debate. But he might be more afraid that Senators will point out all of his false claims and reveal the gun control bill’s dangers. Mr. Obama got it all backwards in his April 3rd speech in Colorado: "tougher background checks . . . won’t infringe on the rights of responsible gun owners, but will help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people." The president kept claiming this week and last week...

Author John Lott talked about his book, At the Brink: Will Obama Push Us Over the Edge, in which he argues that, thanks to President Obama, we are on the verge of economic and social collapse. This talk was part of Loudoun County, Virginia’s Ronald Reagan Lecture Series.

Fox News contributor John R. Lott Jr., author of the book, “More Guns, Less Crime,” will present a lecture on gun control and crime at Dickinson College. Lott, who also has appeared on the ABC and NBC evening news, PBS NewsHour and the "Today" show on NBC, will argue that crime rates fall, when law-abiding people are armed and can defend themselves. He also will share his opinion on gun-control laws and the relationship among guns, crimes and violence, according to a news release from the college. Lott is an economist and educator who has authored seven books. The event...

Can poor people be trusted with guns? Overwhelmingly, Republicans thinks so. But while Democrats fight against taxes on the poor and oppose voter photo IDs because they impose too much of burden, they seem to be doing everything possible – from fees, expensive training requirements, and photo IDs -- to make it next to impossible for the poor to own guns. Indeed, legislation in at least 17 states around the country is aimed specifically at making it more costly to own a gun. Democrats are voting in mass against exempting the poor from fees when it comes to guns. New...

The new unemployment numbers released Friday look reasonable only because our expectations have are so low. In February, the 236,000 new jobs added beat out the 166,000 increase in the working age population, but the labor force participation rate remains stuck at a level that is so low Americans haven't seen anything like it for decades. It simply isn't making a dent in the huge number of people who have simply given up looking for work. Even this last month didn't really help. The number of unemployed Americans fell by about 300,000, but 99 percent of that drop can be...

I have previously noted that there were two multiple victim public shootings that weren't in gun-free zones. Those were the Gabrielle Giffords shooting and the Carson City, NV IHOP shootings, though I had originally missed the IHOP case because it didn't meet the four-victim threshold until a wounded victim died later. In response to my statements, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) has put together a list of their own cases where they claim that more shootings have occurred where guns are allowed. The group's chairman, John Feinblatt, had a relatively long 255 letter in the Wall Street Journal publicizing this...

Gun-control advocates have recently been throwing around an impressive new number. President Obama used it last Wednesday, claiming: “as many as 40 percent of guns are purchased without a background check.” Vice President Biden and everyone from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal to USA Today repeatedly use it. That “fact” provided the principal support for his first announced gun-control proposal, “universal background checks.” But unless you include family inheritances and gifts as “purchases,” it is simply false.The Brady Act background checks currently prevent someone who buys from a federally licensed dealer from buying a gun...

Warning about "weapons designed for the theater of war," President Obama on Wednesday called for immediate action on a new Federal Assault Weapons Ban. He said that "more of our fellow Americans might still be alive" if the original assault weapons ban, passed in 1994, had not expired in 2004. Last month, in the wake of the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) promised to introduce an updated version of the ban. She too warned of the threat posed by "military weapons." After the nightmare of Newtown, their concern is understandable. Yet...

Paul Heroux has this as part of his post up at the Huffington Post: Economist John Lott likes to point out that wherever there has been a gun ban we have seen crime increase. Lott has specifically made the point concerning England's 1997 gun moratorium. Unfortunately, this example is a little loose with the statistics. In some countries where an increase in gun homicides followed a gun ban, it was part of an already rising trend, as it was in England. In other cases it followed the ban. In short, there is no causal relationship; the relationship is spurious. Additionally,...

From my appearance last night on CNN. LOTT: Every place that guns have been banned, murder rates have gone up. You cannot point to one place, whether it's Chicago or whether it's D.C. or whether it's been England of whether it's been Jamaica or Ireland. MORGAN: I'm sorry, but that's just a complete lie. It's a complete lie. The gun murder rate in Britain is 35 a year, average. You need to stop repeating a blatant lie, about what happens in other countries. [cross talk] No, you're not going to get away with this. You lied about it the other...

Yesterday morning, Soledad O’Brien had on her CNN show economist John Lott, of More Guns, Less Crime fame (also an NRO contributor). As I’ve discussed before on NRO, O’Brien has a habit of bringing on conservative guests and then spitting out Democratic talking points under the glib guise of a non-partisan moderator calling them to account on the facts.But her encounter with Lott, the video of which you can view below, is a new low: Rather than parroting liberal arguments (which typically involve at least a few facts) in order to confront Lott’s arguments, she merely relates her bewildered sentiments...