CPRC in the News: ABC News, Just the News, El Tiempo Latino, The Virginia Pilot, and more
John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, a national gun rights advocacy group, told ABC News that it’s “incredibly unusual” that the Covenant School shooter’s writings haven’t already been released.
“To me, the important thing is to learn the motivation why the person picked the particular place they did to attack,” Lott said. . . .
Sin embargo, el crimen no se concentra en un estado ni en una ciudad entera, sino que en ciertas cuadras y zonas, según explicamos en un chequeo de una frase falsa que sostenía que los asesinatos en los Estados Unidos ocurren en ciudades demócratas con leyes rígidas contra las armas. A modo de ejemplo, en Los Ángeles, California, el “peor 10% de los códigos postales [zonas] representa el 41 % de los asesinatos”, según un informe del Crime Prevention Research Center, una organización apartidista.
Translation
However, crime is not concentrated in a state or in an entire city, but in certain blocks and areas, as we explained in a check of a false sentence that maintained that murders in the United States occur in Democratic cities with rigid laws against weapons. As an example, in Los Angeles, California, the “worst 10% of ZIP codes [areas] account for 41% of murders,” according to a report by the nonpartisan Crime Prevention Research Center.
But what does the evidence say about “gun-free zones”?
According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, “gun-free zones” (areas where guns are prohibited) have been the target of more than 98% of all mass shootings. This staggering number is why such designated areas are often referred to as “soft targets,” meaning unprotected and vulnerable.
“According to the Crime Prevention Research Center, only a little more than 1% of mass public shootings since 1950 have occurred in places that were not considered to be a gun-free zone,” reports The Blaze. “In fact, as Crime Prevention Research Center President John Lott Jr. noted in October 2015, only two mass shootings in the U.S. since 1950 have occurred in an area where citizens were not prohibited from carrying a gun.” . . .
John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, said similar handgun bills passed in other states have had negative consequences.
“Maryland instituted its licensing rules in October 2013,” Lott said. “If you compare the murder rates, for example, between 2020 and 2018, Maryland’s murder rate increased four times faster than the national murder rate over that period of time…If you look at either Connecticut or Missouri…I don’t think it’s had any beneficial impact in terms of suicide rates.” . . .
Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said the shooter, later identified as a 28-year-old woman who identifies as transgender, had a detailed map, drawings of the school, and known entry points.
John Lott, who is president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, said “that’s very common.”
Lott has been studying mass shootings for more than 25 years. He added that it’s “extremely unusual” for the writings not to be released. . . .
Lott mentioned other mass shootings in which suspects scouted out places ahead of an attack, similar to Covenant. . . .
During the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting in 2012, writings revealed the shooter decided not to attack an airport because of too much security.
Lott said he believes it’s common for mass murderers to consider if they think folks will have guns.
That’s similar to the limited information known about the Covenant shooter, as police said the shooter had other locations in mind, but due to security measures, did not go there.
Lott said the writings are “extremely important” and often add insight into mass shootings, as well as the suspects.
“You know what goes through their minds and why they pick the targets that they did,” said Lott. . . .
Pro-life organizations faced more than a hundred “firebombing” and vandalism incidents within five months of the Supreme Court’s leaked Dobbs draft overturning federal abortion rights, Mike Johnson said, referring to research by the Crime Prevention Research Center. . . .
Houses of worship, schools, and colleges and universities often have gun restrictions. But this is changing. Currently, 32 states “may allow teachers or other school personnel to carry a firearm with certain restrictions,” according to usconcealedcarry.com. The question is often raised as to the effectiveness of armed individuals stopping an active shooter. John Lott, founder of the Crime Prevention Research Center, showed that 34.4% of active shootings were stopped by armed citizens (data compiled from 2014 to 2021). If an armed individual stops an active shooter (before the police arrive), the number of individuals killed or injured is greatly reduced. Timing is critical during a mass-shooting event. Even under the best of circumstances the police cannot match the response of an armed individual already on site. . . .
As for so-called “mass shootings”—more properly called “mass murders”—according to Dr. John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, “universal” background checks are simply not the answer to that problem. “There’s not one mass public shooting this century that would have been affected if such a law had been in effect nationally and been perfectly enforced,” Lott said in a television interview last year. . . .
Mark Chesnut, “Minnesota Goes for Gun Control,” America’s 1st Freedom, May 23, 2023.
