Review: ‘Gun Control Myths’ by John R. Lott, Jr, PhD

Doctor of Economics John Lott, Jr. is the expert on gun research because he’s done most of it. His Crime Prevention Research Center is the central repository of answers to all questions about the wrongness of gun control and how in truth guns save lives. More Guns, Less Crime (his classic introduction) and his previous book The War on Guns are the perfect foundations for Gun Control Myths—together these form a compendium that addresses most of the fraudulent claims that have been made about how guns surely (but don’t) cause “gun violence”.

9/03/2020: FreeRepublic - What Democrat Control of the Senate Means for Gun Control, by John Lott Jr.

.... the Democrat’s convention platform is focused on a radical gun control agenda. It advocates licensing for gun owners, allowing gun makers to be held liable whenever someone uses a gun to commit a crime or cause an accident, and banning some types of semi-automatic guns based on appearance rather than on function.

But the Senate won’t just determine what gun control legislation gets passed — it will also determine what judges get confirmed. And there are few issues that divide Democrat and Republican-appointed judges more consistently and completely than gun control.

The states Democrats control judicially are ones that they also tend to control legislatively. These circuit courts approve any and all of the gun control regulations that get passed, no matter how flagrantly they infringe on the right to keep and bear arms.

The Supreme Court isn’t restraining these courts. All four Democrat appointees claim that people don’t have a right to self-defense. Indeed, they have already noted they will vote to overturn the court’s 2008 Heller and 2010 McDonald decisions, and one more Democratic appointment would give them the chance to do so. Those rulings merely ensured the government could not completely ban guns.

Four Republican-appointed justices clearly care about the right to self-defense. But they won’t take up gun control cases for fear that Justice John Roberts will side with the liberal justices. He has already done so on cases concerning religious freedom, DACA, and Obamacare.

There are five states where the average of the latest polls show less than three percentage points separate the Republican and Democrat Senate candidates –Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, and Montana. All these states have traditionally had strong support for the right of self-defense. But the betting odds show the senate right now will end in a 50-50 tie, which means whoever wins the presidency will determine who controls the Senate.

... the NRA spent $18.9 million on all campaigns in 2018, New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg put up $110 million just for congressional campaigns. Bloomberg spent even more than that on state legislative races across the country.

C’mon man! The two issues couldn’t be more different!

The sacred right to abortion is a core right guaranteed be the Constitution. It was found hiding in the penumbra of the implied ‘right to privacy’ by five of the nine Justices then sitting on the Supreme Court of the United States. If you really squint your eyes as you read the 4th Amendment you can almost imagine that you see it there.

Gun ownership on the other hand is completely absent in the Constitution, except for the highly controversial 2nd Amendment which was included only to allow slave patrols by the white-supremest so-called Founding Fathers. You’re not for slave patrols are you? Besides, great legal minds agree that the 2nd Amendment is just allowing the states to establish the National Guard—if you’re not in the National Guard you shouldn’t be allowed a firearm.

I’m putting the /s here because some have faulty sarcasm detectors.

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