CPRC in the News: Breitbart, Instapundit, Townhall, WUSA, The Chattanoogan, Denver Westworld, and more
“The Crime Prevention Research Center reports that at least 20 states have allowed citizens to carry firearms in the capitols for some time. Some states allow open carry of firearms by citizens even if they do not have a permit, such as Kentucky. Others may require that only permit holders can carry in their capitols.
. . . The concealed-carry permits either issued or renewed in just these eight counties add up to more than 50,000 in 2021 alone. But how many of these people actually carry a gun most of the time? “Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2021,” a study by Crime Prevention Research Center authors John R. Lott and Rujun Wang published last October, references a 2017 Pew Research Center survey that found the following:
• 30 percent of American adults say that they own a gun.
• 72 percent of the people who own a gun say they own a handgun or a pistol.
• 11 percent of handgun owners say that they carry all the time, 26 percent say they carry most or all the time, and 57 percent say that they carry at least some of the time.After doing the math, Lott and Wang conclude that the total number of concealed-carry permits is at least 21.52 million, or about 8.3 percent of the adult population in the United States. Moreover, they determine that approximately 5.4 percent of Americans carry a gun with them all or most of the time.
Not counting those who presumably do so without bothering to get a permit.
Click to see Colorado concealed-handgun permit reports from 2021, 2019 and 2011, plus the 2021 Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office annual report and the study “Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2021.” . . .
An expanded study from the Crime Prevention Research Center lists more than 60 instances in which a concealed carry permit holder stopped a mass shooter.
The study’s authors note that the 60+ incidents are those in which a concealed carry permit holder used a handgun to stop a mass shooting, and point out: “There is no reason to believe that this list is comprehensive, given how little media coverage is devoted to these heroic acts. In addition, we make no attempt here to list here the vast number of defensive gun uses in general that are reported daily in the US.”
On July 14, 2022, Breitbart News pointed to a study from the Crime Prevention Research Center showing 60+ times a concealed carry permit holder stopped a mass shooting between December 17, 1991, and May 25, 2022. . . .
JOHN STOSSEL: The US ‘Has the Most Mass Shootings’—and Other Bogus Gun Research.
Last year, they claimed that there were school shootings at “hundreds of schools.” It was “an almost daily occurrence” in the U.S., some said.
This was nonsense. NPR reporters looked into the 235 shootings reported by the U.S. Department of Education and were only able to confirm 11 of them.
It turned out that schools were added to the list merely because someone at a school heard there may have been a shooting. Good for NPR for checking out the Education Department’s claims.
Economist John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center (and the father of one of my producers), spends much of his time researching gun use and correcting shoddy studies.
A few years ago, much of the media claimed that the U.S. has “the most mass shootings of any country in the world.” Then-President Barack Obama added it’s “a pattern now … that has no parallel anywhere else … .”
CNN and the Los Angeles Times wrote about “Why the U.S. Has the Most Mass Shootings.” (“The United States has more guns.”)
But the U.S. doesn’t have the most mass shootings, says Lott. It’s a myth created by University of Alabama associate professor Adam Lankford, a myth repeated by anti-gun media in hundreds of news stories.
“Lankford claimed that since 1966, there were 90 mass public shooters in the United States, more than any other country,” says Lott. “Lankford claimed ‘complete data’ were available from 171 countries.”
But how could that be? Many governments don’t collect such data, and even fewer have information from before the days of the internet.
A shooting in say, India, would likely be reported only in local newspapers, in a local dialect. How would Lankford ever find out about it? How did he collect his information? What languages did he search in?
He won’t say.
“That’s academic malpractice,” says Lott in my video about the controversy.
I’m not surprised that Lankford didn’t reply to Lott’s emails. Lott is known as pro-gun. (He wrote the book “More Guns, Less Crime.”) But Lankford also won’t explain his data to me, The Washington Post, or even his fellow gun control advocates.
When Lott’s research center checked the data, using Lankford’s own definition of a mass shooting—“four or more people killed”—the center found 3,000 shootings around the world. Lankford claimed there were only 202.
Lankford said he excludes “sponsored terrorism,” but does not define what he means by that. To be safe, Lott removed terrorism cases from his data. He still found 709 shootings—more than triple the number Lankford reported.
It turns out that not only did the U.S. not have the most frequent mass shootings, it was No. 62 on the list, lower than places like Norway, Finland, and Switzerland.
There was also no relationship between the rate of gun ownership in different countries and the rate of mass shootings.
If journalists had just demanded Lankford explain his study methods before touting his results, his “more mass shootings” myth would never have spread.
AP Stylebook Finally Recognizes AR-15s Aren’t Weapons of War. John Lott applauds the Associated Press’ commitment to accuracy in describing gun violence and efforts to curb it.. . .
Nationwide, a Crime Prevention Research Center study, shows the number of concealed handgun permits soared to over 21.51 million in 2021, a 10.5% increase from numbers the year prior, and a nearly 50% increase since 2016.
Digging deeper, the Crime Prevention Research Center compiled data on mass shootings from 1998 through May 2022 totaling 84 instances. Of those, 25 used rifles or handguns and rifles. Of the rifles used, 12 were AR-15 style .223 semi-automatics. . . .
The best available numbers on concealed carry permit holders show continual growth. The Crime Prevention Research Center’s latest survey, Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2021, found 21.5 million Americans hold permits—up 48 percent from 2016. . . .
Gabriella Hoffman, “SCOTUS Concealed Carry Decision Reflects the Times,” Townhall, July 7, 2022.
Attorneys general critical of New York’s restrictive law credit their states’ easier-access regimes with “statistically significant reductions in some types of violent crime” or “no statistically significant effect on violent crime,” notwithstanding a steep increase in concealed carrying in recent years. Nationwide, the number of concealed-carry permits increased from 4.6 million in 2007 to 12.8 million in 2015, according to the amicus brief the attorneys general filed in the case. That figure soared to 21.5 million in 2021, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center.
Moreover, research conducted by Economist John R. Lott suggests that the FBI tally of armed citizens stopping active shooters is an undercount.
Staff, “Another Good Guy with a Gun Stops the Bad Guy,” NRA-ILA, July 25, 2022.
Criminologist Dr. John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center examined how the locations of crime have changed during 2019 to 2022, using Los Angeles census and crime statistics. In that city, “the richer and whiter the area, the greater the increase in both raw crime totals and percentages of total city crime,” including violent felonies. “Although poor and minority neighborhoods still experience the largest total number of crimes, including violent crimes such as murder, the shift to relatively safer neighborhoods is pronounced.” For instance, the trend for robberies during the study period indicated that, while the overall rate in the city dipped slightly, it increased significantly in wealthier areas. A 9.7% annual increase occurred “for zip codes where the median house was $1 million to $1.5 million, and 15.2% for zip codes where the median house was $1.5 million to $2 million.” Other kinds of theft, rape, and aggravated assault crimes followed a similar pattern.
Buckeye Firearms Association, “More Crime, Same (Lame) Gun Control Proposals,” July 19, 2022.
