The War on Guns Quotes

“criminals have ways of getting guns even when guns are banned. For example, drug gangs will get their guns to protect their drugs just as easily as they get their drugs to sell. Thus gun control primarily disarms the citizens who obey the laws.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“The benefits of gun ownership have generally gone ignored in medical journals that have studied gun ownership, what is called the public health literature. There is no mention that widespread gun ownership deters criminals from breaking into homes. There is no mention that gun ownership helps protect residents from harm in the event of a break-in, or that mass public shooters consistently attack gun-free zones where they don’t have to worry about victims being able to defend themselves. And gun owners—contrary to what the media advises—should not unquestioningly store their guns locked and unloaded. That defeats the purpose of being ready at a moment’s notice.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“When it comes to television advertising, Michael Bloomberg out-spends the NRA and all other self-defense groups by 6.3 to one. The money produces political attack ads that accuse supporters of right-to-carry on college campuses of “allowing criminals to carry hidden, loaded guns in our schools.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“The Batman movie theater killer, James Holmes, initially considered attacking an airport. In his diary, which was released in 2015, he explained his decision against targeting the airport because of “substantial security.”23 He then selected the only theater within twenty minutes of his apartment that banned permitted concealed handguns.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“Democrats are unwilling to admit that their gun control regulations are disarming poor Americans. President Obama characterizes Voter ID laws that offer free IDs as “voter suppression laws,”31 but sees no irony in imposing much greater inconveniences and costs on prospective gun owners.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“Former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard wrote in the New York Times in 2013, “[T]here is a wide consensus that our 1996 reforms not only reduced the gun-related homicide rate, but also the suicide rate. The Australian Institute of Criminology found that gun-related murders and suicides fell sharply after 1996.”2 But the impact of Australia’s gun buyback in 1996–97 is a lot less obvious than most might think. The buyback resulted in more than 1 million firearms being handed in and destroyed, reducing gun ownership from 3.2 to 2.2 million guns. But since then there has been a steady increase in the number of privately owned guns. By 2010, the total number of privately owned guns was back to the 1996 level.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“The world recoiled in horror in 2012 when 20 Connecticut schoolchildren and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. . . . The weapon was a Bushmaster AR-15 semiautomatic rifle adapted from its original role as a battlefield weapon. The AR-15, which is designed to inflict maximum casualties with rapid bursts, should never have been available for purchase by civilians (emphasis added).1 —New York Times editorial, March 4, 2016 Assault weapons were banned for 10 years until Congress, in bipartisan obeisance to the gun lobby, let the law lapse in 2004. As a result, gun manufacturers have been allowed to sell all manner of war weaponry to civilians, including the super destructive .50-caliber sniper rifle. . . .(emphasis added)2 —New York Times editorial, December 11, 2015 [James Holmes the Aurora, Colorado Batman Movie Theater Shooter] also bought bulletproof vests and other tactical gear” (emphasis added).3 —New York Times, July 22, 2012 It is hard to debate guns if you don’t know much about the subject. But it is probably not too surprising that gun control advocates who live in New York City know very little about guns. Semi-automatic guns don’t fire “rapid bursts” of bullets. The New York Times might be fearful of .50-caliber sniper rifles, but these bolt-action .50-caliber rifles were never covered by the federal assault weapons ban. “Urban assault vests” may sound like they are bulletproof, but they are made of nylon. These are just a few of the many errors that the New York Times made.4 If it really believes that it has a strong case, it wouldn’t feel the need to constantly hype its claims. What distinguishes the New York Times is that it doesn’t bother running corrections for these errors.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“Whether in Canada, Hawaii, Chicago, or Washington, D.C., police are unable to point to a single instance of gun registration aiding the investigation of a violent crime.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“The paper is clearly misleading, as it fails to report that in only eight of these 444 homicide cases was the gun that had been kept in the home the murder weapon.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“Nearly 12,000 murdered with guns each year,” parroted Columbia in an online post announcing the workshop. In fact, the FBI reports that there were 8,124 murder victims in 2014. Since 2010, the number of victims has stayed below 9,000.28 Columbia also repeated the absurd claim that the U.S. has a firearm murder rate “20 times higher than other developed countries.” Chile has a murder rate very similar to that of the U.S. Brazil and Russia are both developed countries that have much higher firearm murder rates than the U.S.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“According to a 2013 survey of PoliceOne’s 450,000 members (380,000 active duty and 70,000 retired), 91 percent of law enforcement officers support concealed carry laws.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“After the phone call from Daley, the University of Chicago presented me with my two termination options. I wrote back to Dean Fischel—whom I believed I had been on good terms with—that I was “stunned and shocked at being requested to resign.” I told him that I had gone to the conference simply to answer reporters’ questions about my research. I asked him whether, if I took the second option, I could still talk about my book and other research. Fischel responded, “I cannot give you a specific answer to your questions.” He noted, “With respect [to] damage to your reputation, many think you have only yourself to blame by winding up in a public confrontation at the mayor’s press conference.” He added in a later email: “If you cannot make yourself for all practical purposes invisible (at least in terms of any mention of the university), you should resign.” I took the second option and completely stopped talking to the media for over three months.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“On December 10, 1998, Daley had organized a conference with four other mayors to discuss suing the gun makers. Because of my book More Guns, Less Crime, which argued that Daley’s gun laws did more harm than good, reporters from the local CBS and Fox stations who were already at the conference asked me to meet them to talk about the lawsuits. I had originally planned to arrive after the mayors had finished their post-conference presentations. But the mayors were running behind schedule when I arrived, so CBS reporter Mike Flannery suggested that I attend the presentations. That way, I could better answer any questions that he might have. The presentations were followed by a question-and-answer period with press, some students, and others in the audience. When the audience started yelling questions, I raised my hand in an attempt to get called on. At that point a woman walked over to me and asked me if I was John Lott from the University of Chicago. I said that I was, and she informed me that I was not allowed to ask any questions. No explanation was given. Some audience members took notice.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“What we do find is that fatalities and injuries from mass public shootings increased in states after they imposed background checks on private transfers. States with background checks on private transfers tended to have relatively low rates of murders and injuries from mass public shootings before the passage of background checks on private transfers, and these rates became relatively high afterwards.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“After the San Bernardino attack, Alison Anderman, with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, noted: “California is leading the way [with stricter gun control laws], but California is surrounded by a country that has much weaker laws, and we know that a lot of the guns used in crime in California are trafficked in from other states. What we do need is a comprehensive Federal system that puts tough strict regulations in place that make it hard for people who mean to do harm to get guns.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“The reason there are so few attacks that use out-of-state guns is that in both cases these individuals could have passed background checks in either the state where they lived or the place where they committed their crimes.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“Thus there was no “loophole,” no special rule for gun shows. The most recent surveys of state and federal prisoners, conducted all the way back in 1991 and 1997, indicate that only about 0.6 percent to 0.7 percent of guns obtained by criminals were from gun shows.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“None of these shootings, nor others that the president has mentioned, would have been stopped if background checks on private transfers had been required.4 The three most recent massacres occurred in states—California, Colorado, and Oregon—which already have such laws in place.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“Blacks have the most to gain from Stand Your Ground laws, and there is no evidence that the laws are applied in any way that discriminates against blacks. My research even suggests just the opposite. But this conversation about discrimination should not be blown out of proportion. The most important thing is that Stand Your Ground saves lives.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“In my third edition of More Guns, Less Crime, I provided the first published, peer-reviewed, nationwide study on Stand Your Ground laws. I found that these laws lowered murder rates by about 9 percent. Overall violent crime rates also declined.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“Proponents of the federal “Trayvon Martin Act” want to prevent Stand Your Ground laws from being used by someone who was the initial aggressor.7 But Florida and other state laws already make clear that under the Stand Your Ground provision, the law’s protection is “not available to a person who . . . initially provokes the use of force against himself or herself, unless: (a) . . . he or she has exhausted every reasonable means to escape such danger other than the use of force which is likely to cause death or great bodily harm to the assailant . . . or (b) In good faith, the person withdraws from physical contact with the assailant and indicates clearly to the assailant that he or she desires to withdraw and terminate the use of force, but the assailant continues or resumes the use of force.”8 The bottom line is simple: under Stand Your Ground, you must retreat if you provoked the situation.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“Unfortunately, Stand Your Ground laws have recently become the subject of a racially-charged debate. President Obama and then-Attorney General Holder have weighed in, suggesting that Stand Your Ground laws do not apply equally to all races. And in 2013 on ABC News’s This Week, Tavis Smiley declared: “It appears to me, and I think many other persons in this country, that you can in fact stand your ground unless you are a black man.”5 In fact, blacks living in high-crime urban areas are the most likely victims of violent crime and the most likely beneficiaries of Stand Your Ground laws. Blacks are disproportionately affected by rules that make self-defense more difficult.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“3.​Background checks as de facto registration. It is not just other countries that use gun registries as a tool for mass confiscation. People in California, New York, and Chicago have all seen their registered guns confiscated.8 Tellingly, Obama has hailed Great Britain and Australia as examples to follow. Both of these countries have engaged in mass confiscation.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“2.​Stop only prohibited people from buying guns. The background check system is a mess. Virtually everyone who fails the check is someone who is legally eligible to buy a gun. Obama says that background checks have stopped 2.4 million dangerous or prohibited people from buying a gun.3 He should have said that there were 2.4 million “initial denials.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“Democrats could pass universal background checks if only they addressed three seemingly straightforward problems: 1.​Who pays for it? Gun buyers and sellers are stuck with all the fees for universal background checks. In New York City and D.C., these fees are at least $125.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“In a study that I did on the years 1995–2001, I found that children under ten were involved in an average of only nine such shootings per year.7 Overwhelmingly, the shooters are adult males with alcohol addictions, suspended or revoked driver’s licenses, and a record of arrests for violent crimes.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“Maybe this doctor should have asked about the family bathtubs instead of the family guns. Because, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), 346 children under age five drowned in bathtubs between 2006 and 2010.2 By contrast, only ninety-four children under five died from accidental gunshots over the same period.3 That is a difference of nearly a factor of four. In fact, more children under five died from drowning in bathtubs than children under ten or even under fifteen from accidental gun shots (167 and 291 respectively).”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“There is another real cost to linking gun violence with mental illness. Dr. Renee Binder, President of the American Psychiatric Association and herself a strong gun control advocate, rightly points out that, “People with mental illness are far more likely to be victims of violence . . . the majority of individuals with mental illness will never be violent toward others.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“The Army psychiatrist who last saw Ivan Lopez found no “sign of likely violence, either to himself or to others.”42 James Holmes’s psychiatrist warned the University of Colorado officials about her patient’s violent fantasies, but she “rejected the idea” that the threat was sufficiently serious for him to be taken into custody.43 Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech killer, was subject to a commitment hearing.44 However, licensed psychologist Roy Crouse performed an independent evaluation and found Cho to be “mentally ill” but concluded, “he does not present an imminent danger to (himself/others) . . . he does not require involuntary hospitalization.” A staff psychiatrist at Carilion St. Albans Psychiatric Hospital recommended outpatient counseling and determined that Cho “is not a danger to himself or others.” The judge accepted these findings and determined not to have Cho involuntarily committed.45 These mass killers certainly didn’t lack mental health care. The problem was that even top psychiatrists failed to identify them as real threats.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies

“In a 2013 interview with academics who do research on gun control and gun-free zones, Jake Berry, a reporter with the Nashua Telegraph (New Hampshire) found: “On the whole, Lott’s colleagues—both in the media and academia—don’t dispute his findings.”31 The dispute is over why these attacks keep occurring where guns are banned: •​David Hemenway, a public health researcher at Harvard, explained: “I suspect that most places that mass public shootings could logically occur are ‘gun-free zones’ either determined by the government (schools) or by private businesses and institutions.” •​Similarly, Dan Webster, a public health researcher at Johns Hopkins, said: “Schools might be a likely target because that is where a mass of people congregate and those people involve a lot of troubled adolescents who may harbor bad feelings toward the people there who bullied them, were unfair to them, etc. The shooters in these instances didn’t say, ‘Hey, I’ll find a gun-free zone where I can shoot a lot of people.’ No, they went to a place for reasons wholly unrelated to gun-free zones.”
― John R. Lott Jr., The War on Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies