Free Republic

Some hope that the shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and others last Wednesday will lead to more civility in politics. It’s clear that the attack was politically motivated — the Democratic shooter even carried a hit list of Republicans. The political viciousness has been everywhere. While some will blame the violence on the grotesque picture of Kathy Griffin holding the President’s severed head or a play where the president is being stabbed to death, this Sunday Jill Abramson, the former chief editor of the New York Times, told CNN that it was “President Trump and the congressional leadership...

In an article that claims the famous researcher John Lott is partly responsible for mass murder, the author let slip an interesting bit of information. John Lott was a Democrat before he conducted his well known research.  From psmag.com: Outside of the Baylor auditorium, Lott told me about his journey to becoming the most prominent and most hated gun researcher: His interest in guns, he said, started when he was an economist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Students asked him about his thoughts on gun control, and so Lott started researching. He wasn't a gun...

A writer at Pacific Standard, Peter Moskowitz, assigned a measure of responsibility for a few of the latest mass public shootings ( Orlando Pulse Jihadi attack, Columbine, Sandy Hook, Fort Hood Jihadi attack, Navy Yard shooting, Aurora Theater shooting, and Charleston Church shooting) to John Lott. Why?It appears to be because John Lott conducts research that shows that more legally armed citizens reduce violent crime, and that gun free zones attract mass shootings. Moskowitz admits that he is ill prepared to judge Lott's work. From psmag.com: I will not be able to debunk Lott here and now. I am...

In the past month, criminals have murdered six police officers in the line of duty. The number might have been eight if not for the actions of two concealed handgun permit holders. At this rate, police deaths could be way up this year compared to previous years. By this time last year, only one officer had been murdered. While Republican presidential candidates such as Cruz, Rubio and Trump have spoken out forcefully about police shootings, Democrats have been silent. You’ve probably heard on the news when at least one of these officers has been killed. But you almost certainly haven’t...

John Lott: Even Liberal Academics Are Turning Pro-Gun Ownership From the left and right, people are bombarded with diametrically opposing claims on guns. But most of this bombardment isn’t coming from the National Rifle Association. Michael Bloomberg is spending far more money — hundreds of millions of dollars — trying to convince Americans that guns should be kept out of the hands of even law-abiding citizens. And yet, by double-digit margins, Americans say that they feel safer if more people in their neighborhood own guns. The answer is the same on concealed carry. Most of the media are doing their...

Former Senator Trent Lott – who, as you might remember, walked into a political buzzsaw in 2002 over comments that effectively destroyed his Senate career – highly disapproves of this Senator Ted Cruz fellow. Not least because Senator Cruz said some awful, awful things about former Senator Lott’s good friend, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. It’s always interesting to see how a lobbyist defines ‘inappropriate behavior,’ really. Hoover up all the political pork you can? That’s Senatorial. Call Mitch McConnell a liar over the Export-Import Bank? Call out the Sergeant-At-Arms: “Having been majority leader, I’ve never had someone stand on...

The fight heats up Texas Sen. Ted Cruz returned fire on establishment Republicans Thursday, including former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, who suggested that Cruz would fare worse in a general election than Donald Trump. Speaking to reporters following a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Cruz said Dole, among others, were looking to continue the "cronyism" and "corruption" of Washington. "If you think of the last time we beat the Washington cartel it was 1980, it was the Reagan revolution, where millions of Americans rose up," Cruz said. "And I would note that Mr. Dole then opposed Reagan, and said we...

... Beltway Republicans say they consider Donald Trump the lesser of two evils. Cruz wears their loathing as a badge of honor...

Opinion Journal’s Mary Kissel and Crime Research Center President John Lott on President Obama’s gun control measures.

Americans are increasingly convinced that owning a gun makes them safer. A new Rasmussen poll found that an overwhelming majority of Americans (68 percent) "feel safer in a neighborhood where guns are allowed." And a series of polls by Gallup, the Pew Research Center, and ABC News and The Washington Post show similar results. But it isn't just what people say. They are clearly putting more stock in self-defense. Since 2007, the number of concealed-handgun permits has soared from 4.6 million to 12.8 million. A new study by the Crime Prevention Research Center finds that a record 1.7 million permits...

When you watch the news after the latest big shooting, there's a good chance you'll come across John Lott. The 57-year-old economist has made more than 100 media appearances over the past two years, from friendly conversations on Fox News to heated debates on MSNBC and CNN. After nine churchgoers were gunned down in Charleston, South Carolina, he went on Sean Hannity's show and criticized President Obama for spreading "clearly false" information about gun violence. Following the recent mass shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, his op-ed asking "Why should we make it easy for killers to attack our military?" was among...

Americans are increasingly convinced that owning a gun makes them safer. A new Rasmussen poll found that an overwhelming majority of Americans (68%) "feel safer in a neighborhood where guns are allowed." And a series of polls by Gallup, the Pew Research Center and ABC News and The Washington Post show similar results. But it isn't just what people say. They are clearly putting more stock in self-defense. Since 2007, the number of concealed-handgun permits has soared, from 4.6 million to 12.8 million. A new study by the Crime Prevention Research Center finds that a record 1.7 million permits have...

John Lott talked about the new study put out by Pew Research Center which finds that support for gun rights have increased and, for the first time, protecting gun rights is more important than controlling ownership. He responded to telephone calls and electronic communications, including a telephone line reserved for gun owners.

Here’s an article, in where Dr. John R. Lott Jr., eviscerates Harvard Professor David Hemenway’s survey of cherry picked authors. That of course lead to the conclusion that guns are bad. It’s what these people do. No matter real credible research, and the longstanding Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is an obvious social utility of the people. I wonder why gun prohibitionists think the Second Amendment was created to begin with. It’s in the Bill of Rights. Even still, they love to refer to guns as if being deprived of arms, is some sort of benefit.

Just when you thought the Mississippi Republican Party could not get any more hypocritical than they already are, they surprise us again! The Mississippi GOP, in a posting on Facebook, attacked Travis Childers and Rickey Cole for taking a page from the liberal playbook – the class card. President Obama knew “hope” and “change” would not “win him a second term, so he used class envy to play on the worst instincts of his voters.” So now Childers and Cole are doing likewise, they tell us. Democrats “love playing the ‘rich versus poor’ game. That’s a great political tactic, but...

Gazprombank GPB (OJSC), a Russian bank targeted with sanctions by President Obama over the Ukraine crisis, has hired two former U.S. senators to lobby against those sanctions, according to a new disclosure filed with the Senate. Gazprombank is controlled by Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom, the country’s largest gas producer; it supplies about a third of Europe’s natural gas. In a filing submitted Friday and effective that day, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and former Senator John Breaux, D-La., are listed as the main lobbyists under the Gazprombank account for the firm Squire Patton Boggs, lobbying on “banking...

ver the last four years, I have lived with the constant threat from a stalker – a stalker who is now in jail for the third time for violating a restraining order. Every day I live with these questions: What if today is the day that my stalker posts bail? What if today is the day that he discovers my parents’ new address? What if I go to a lecture on campus and he shows up there? I feel that I have no control over my life. My family was forced to move. I have had stay indoors, keep drapes...

Former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) says Mississippi Republicans may need a regime change after the damaging primary fight between Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and state Sen. Chris McDaniel. “This has shown the fissures that are there and I do think the party leaders – it may cause the need for some change in the party leadership,” Lott, now the co-chairman of Squire Patton Boggs' public policy practice, told The Hill during a wide-ranging interview at the firm's Washington office. He warned that the Mississippi establishment is ignoring the Tea Party wing of the GOP at their own peril. “If they...

Is there an epidemic of school shootings? Parents are understandably fearful, but their fear is unjustified. Schools are relatively safe places, and they have gotten much safer. While even one death is too many, the number of children killed in school shootings has declined over the last couple of decades. The drop is even larger than the overall decline in the murder rate.

Thad Cochran is getting his butt kicked in Mississippi by conservative challenger Chris McDaniel. That has sent the NRSC and its friends into a tailspin and they are desperate to tar and feather Chris McDaniel. Some freak in Mississippi has handed them their latest tool. By willfully ignoring the real timeline and facts, the NRSC wishes to drag Chris McDaniel into scandal and, they no doubt hope, down in the polls. It is an open secret in Mississippi that Thad Cochran’s wife is in a nursing home. I have known it for some time, which is why RedState has not...