JOHN R. LOTT, JR
GUN
CONTROL
MYTHS
FOREWARD BY ANDREW POLLACK
John Lott has been giving us the facts about guns for decades. Finally clear to all that one party in America has an anti-Second Amendment platform and wants to disarm you. Now you need to arm yourself with the Truth. Buy and read Gun Control Myths today. Before its too late.
Sebastian Gorka Ph.D.,
host of AMERICAN First,
former Strategist to President Trump
We have John Lott to thank for once again providing factual and empirical based research to counter the anti gun movements well funded and organized campaign based on nothing more than slogans, myths and propaganda designed to demonize supporters of our cherished Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
David Clarke
Sheriff(RET) Milwaukee County
John Lott is the go-to expert when it comes to protecting the second amendment. Without the second amendment Americans could be stripped of our right to arm ourselves against aggressors. Arm yourselves with knowledge by reading Gun Control Myths and join me in protecting the Second Amendment.
Eric Bolling
Host AMERICA This Week
Sinclair Broadcast
President and Chairman JanOne
John Lott shows that the media and many politicians are biased against guns. For example, many stories are written in the media about shooters, but very few about defensive uses of guns. Similarly, he shows that some gun control policies are actually counterproductive. Shooters seek out gun-free zones. If we banned assault weapons, shooters might shift to larger hunting guns. The book is copiously footnoted. It is full of statistical and graphical analysis, so that his points are easily grasped and persuasive. Anyone who advocates gun control and does not seriously consider Johns work is negligent. Any journalist who does not at least consider Johns work is committing journalistic malpractice.
Paul H. Rubin
Dobbs Professor of Economics Emeritus, Emory University
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my children Maxim, Ryan, Roger, Sherwin and Dagny. It is for them and because of them that I am motivated to try to figure out what policies will make people safer.
Acknowledgement
I want to thank Roger Lott and Rujun Wang for their work and help in putting this book together.
Dagny Lott and Carl Moody provided valuable counsel on many parts of this book.
This book would not have been possible without the time of all these individuals.
Copyright 2020, John R. Lott, Jr.
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
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Forward
I was never a big Second Amendment supporter until my daughter Meadow was murdered on the third floor of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Parkland school shooting.
For readers who just follow the news casually, that should sound like a crazy statement. After all, the Parkland shooting captured the news cycle for months thanks to a handful of kids who attacked the National Rifle Association and argued that we should ban AR-15s.
For my part, I just wanted to know what went wrong and why. If the facts had suggested that there was some tie to some pro-gun policy, or that the kind of gun used made a difference, I would have been right there with those gun control kids. But when I looked into it, I realized that a lack of gun control wasnt the problem. The laws on the books should have been enough to stop the shooter. Yet every local official failed every step of the way. It was the most avoidable mass murder in American history. You wouldnt know this, though, because the media had its narrative before it knew any of the facts and they sure as hell werent going to let the facts get in their way.
Still, all the debate about gun control got me interested. I wanted to learn a lot more about it. It had nothing to do with the Parkland shooting, but maybe some of the policies the kids were advancing could have helped with others. Maybe, I thought, its still a good idea that I should support.
So I reached out to experts from both sides. First thing I want to tell you is that, arguments aside, John Lott is a good and honest man who was extremely supportive of me and my family. But more to the point, one thing he told me stuck with me and still seems to shock everyone I tell it to. After every shooting, maybe the number one thing you hear from gun control groups is that we need to close the gun show loophole and regulate private sales. Its the kind of proposal that sounds like it makes a lot of sense.
But did you know that not one single mass shooting in the 20 th century was perpetrated with a gun acquired through that so-called loophole?
I didnt. Ill admit it. I was actually kind of shocked. It seemed almost like the conventional narratives about guns had absolutely no relationship to reality. And when you read this book, I suspect youll feel a similar sense of shock turning through each page.
I dont want preview too much of Johns findings, arrived at through pain staking research and clear-headed analysis. So rather than tell you what youll read in this book, I want to tell you why you should read this book.
My daughter knew that she heard gunshots coming from downstairs. But when her teacher heard the fire alarm go off and told her to go into the hallway on the third floor, she did. Two security staff on the first floor charged the shooter, trying to take him down with their bare hands. They died trying. The school was, after all, a gun-free zone. Except, of course, for the gun the shooter had. My daughter was in that hallway. Defenseless. Knowing what was coming. Unable to do anything to stop it.
You hear gun control advocates say all the time guns kill people. And you hear a lot of Second Amendment advocates say no, people kill people. But what you have to understand, and what you will understand after reading this book, is: gun control kills people.
You probably wont be like me. Youll probably never have a loved one who was murdered but could have been saved if not for gun control policies. But you might.
Thats why you have to read this book and use the facts in it as ammunition in the fight to keep your family and loved ones safe. They want a world where everyone is defenseless. Where the only people armed are the criminals and the murderers. You cant let that happen. You need to learn the facts.
Andrew Pollack
Author of Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies That Created the Parkland Shooter and Endanger Americas Students.
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
It may be true that someone in the congregation had their own gun and killed the person who murdered two other people, but its the job of law enforcement to have guns and to decide when to shoot. You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place....
Michael Bloomberg, January 2, 2020
Hell yes, were going to take your AR-15,
Beto ORourke, who former Vice President Joe Biden says
