Lott - The War on Guns

Praise for

THE WAR ON GUNS

The Second Amendment has no better defender than John Lott. What makes him so invaluable is his ability to go beyond philosophical arguments and to engage opponents of gun ownership on the facts. Through rigorous research and analysis of data, he has been able to show in previous books that increased gun possession can actually make people safer and reduce crime. In The War on Guns, his latest contribution to the gun debate, he takes aim at a wide range of anti-gun shibboleths and exposes the fraudulence of each one. For that, he has done his country and the cause of gun rights a great service. For anyone looking to be armed with the truth about guns, I highly recommend that you add this book to your arsenal.

TED CRUZ, U.S. senator, Texas

Amidst threats of terrorism, the need for John Lotts The War on Guns and a rational debate on guns has never been greater. Paris and San Bernardino show us that gun-free zones wont stop terrorists. As this book documents, these killers consciously pick targets where they know victims will be sitting ducks. Lott carefully proves that the push for more gun control only makes the types of attacks that we fear more likely to occur. Next time you drop your child off at school, try and find the sign saying, Gun Free Zone. Stop for a moment and ask yourself, Does this really keep my child safe? If you still have questions, read The War on Guns.

NEWT GINGRICH, former Speaker of the House

John Lott is the nations preeminent expert on guns, and in The War on Guns he has done it again. Do mass shootings occur more in the U.S. than other developed countries? No. Did Australias gun laws make them safer? Hardly. Will background checks on private transfers of guns make us safer? No. He destroys one myth after another. John Lott is a national treasure.

MARK LEVIN, constitutional lawyer, New York Times bestselling author, and host of the nationally syndicated radio show, The Mark Levin Show

The war on guns will never end because the anti-gun zealots will never raise the white flag even though the research and data in this book has soundly defeated them. The key is to continue to beat back their propaganda, misinformation, manipulation of data, and even outright lies, in order to protect our God-given right to keep and bear arms.

SHERIFF DAVID A. CLARKE JR., sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin

John Lott is the most dogged, intellectually credible, academic defender of the right to keep and bear arms in the United States today. He is also the chief beast in the night to the gun control crowd. His works are must reading for those of us on the front lines in these debates. The War on Guns is his best work yet. In it, the reader will find well-documented all the data, statistics, practical, legal, and moral arguments one will ever need to support the natural right to self-defense. The statists will fear this book. Freedom lovers will crave it.

HON. ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO, senior judicial analyst Fox News Channel, and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School

To paraphrase a once-famous commercial slogan, When John R. Lott speaks, everyone listens. Or, at least they should when this leading expert on all matters gun control speaks out so provocatively and persuasively. In his new book, Lott delves into the myriad ways in which anti-gun statistics and research have been used to perpetrate utter falsehoods and misleading propaganda. If there is to be any intelligent, honest, and objective discussion of gun policy in the United States, then The War on Guns ought to be required reading.

CHARLES J. GOETZ, Joseph M. Hartfield Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Virginia School of Law

John R. Lott is a role model for those who do scientific research on important problems. He is objective and logical. He uses the best evidence availabledata from natural experiments on the effects of gun regulationsto compare the effects of alternative policies. He fully discloses his analysis, and responds to critics by conducting further research. As a result, his findings have persuaded many people. Lotts scientific approach is the opposite of the advocacy research that fills many academic journals, and which the media delight in reporting. Lotts The War on Guns exposes and explains the deceptions used by gun-control advocates. Those who want to live in a safer world will benefit from Lotts findings. Of the many gun regulations to date, there are no scientific comparisons that have found a reduction in crime or death rates.

PROFESSOR J. SCOTT ARMSTRONG, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

We should all thank and admire John Lott for single-handedly changing the debate on guns from ill-informed rhetoric attacking gun ownership to hard-headed empirical analysis that shows the benefits of allowing law abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons. The War on Guns continues this debate by showing that the anti-gun lobby has spent millions of dollars making false and misleading claims about guns. Once again, John Lott provides careful and rigorous empirical analysis that undermines these claims. Kudos to John Lott for having the guts to take on the anti-gun lobby.

PROFESSOR WILLIAM M. LANDES, senior lecturer and Clifton R. Musser Professor Emeritus of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Law School

John Lott is more responsible than anyone else for arguments that gun ownership in the U.S. increases safety and reduces crime. Arrayed against him are the entire public health establishment and much of the media. In this book, John carefully analyzes many of the arguments made against gun ownershipfor example, there are more gun homicides and mass shootings in the U.S. than elsewhere, background checks reduce gun harms, Stand Your Ground laws harm African Americans and increase crimeand shows using both statistical and anecdotal evidence that they are incorrect. He also shows that wealthy opponents of gun ownership (such as Michael Bloomberg) finance much fallacious public health research on the effects of guns. Anyone interested in the gun debate should read this book, and opponents of gun ownership have an intellectual obligation to confront the arguments.

PROFESSOR PAUL H. RUBIN, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics, Emory University

John Lotts new book, The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies, does just that. Lott deals with a wide variety of claims that question the value of firearms for self-defense, providing the analysis and facts the public needs to see through the distortions of gun control advocates. This is a valuable guide to a more balanced understanding of the issue.

PROFESSOR JOYCE LEE MALCOLM, Patrick Henry Professor of Constitutional Law and the Second Amendment, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

John Lotts new book, The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies, is an indispensable source of facts, insights, and cogent argument. Anyone who wants to be informed on the gun control issue has to read this book.

CARLISLE E. MOODY, Professor of Economics, William and Mary

Copyright 2016 by John R. Lott Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, website, or broadcast.