CPRC in the News: Students for Liberty, Independent Sentinel, Bearing Arms, KTRH Radio, WOAI Radio, and More
Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs . . . Elected as a member of the Republican Party, Mayor Jacobs has a long libertarian streak running through him, especially when it comes to civil rights and economic freedom. “I was taught, growing up, that there are two ends of the political spectrum: left and right. But there’s so much more than that. For me, it’s about liberty versus authoritarianism.” The bookshelf in his office backs this sentiment up, with such titles as “Man, Economy, and State” by Murry Rothbard, “Human Action” by Ludwig von Mises, “More Guns, Less Crime” by John R. Lott Jr., and “End the Fed” by former Congressman Ron Paul. Mayor Jacobs will be delivering his keynote speech during the Students For Liberty awards dinner Saturday evening. . . .
Cheryl Atkinson discussed the discrepancies in crime statistics reported by the FBI and the National Crime Victim Station survey with Dr. Lott. This has been reported before, but people aren’t listening. They also discussed the high rate of crime by ILLEGAL aliens.
John Lott, a crime data analyst who was a senior adviser for research and statistics in the Justice Department, which is over the FBI. He says the FBI crime stats shouldn’t be taken alone at face value.
The FBI falsely claims violent crime is going down in the country. Professor Lott calls them “defrauding statements.”
Has there been a big shift in what we count as crimes and how the FBI collects its statistics? Yes, says Dr. Lott. . . .
Luckily, President Donald Trump is making a lot of changes. He’s already dismissed some senior agents who were reportedly well-known for their political animosity against anyone who wasn’t a Democrat and in allowing that animosity to drive their actions at the FBI.
But John Lott has a suggestion for the president that, frankly, I agree with completely.
There is a lot of attention on the Trump administration removing dozens of Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI officials involved in charging 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, but one area of politicization in the FBI and DOJ that isn’t getting attention: crime data.
The ability to manipulate and distort crime data allows those distorting the data to control the political debate.
I’ve seen many cases of politicized data. Until January 2021, I worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as the senior advisor for research and statistics in the Office of Justice Programs, and part of my job was to evaluate the FBI’s active shooting reports. During my time with the DOJ, I discovered that the FBI either missed or misidentified many cases of civilians using guns to stop attacks. For instance, the FBI continues to report that armed citizens stopped only 14 of the 350 active shooter cases identified between 2014 to 2023.
The Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), which I run, has found many more missed cases and is keeping an updated list. As such, the CPRC numbers tell a much different story: Out of 515 active shooter incidents from 2014 to 2023, armed citizens stopped 180, saving countless innocent lives. Our numbers even excluded 27 cases where a law-abiding citizen with a gun stopped an attacker before he could fire a shot.
Tom Knighton, “Lott Offers Suggestion to Trump on FBI Reforms,” Bearing Arms, February 16, 2025
John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, says that number, which comes from the American Immigration Council, is pretty flawed. He said, “They essentially assume that once every year you have to rebuild all the facilities, which is just crazy. And that’s the one [number] that the media has been going with.”
Lott points out that in 2004, I.C.E. was able to deport around 1.4 million people with a budget of just over $6 billion for that year.
Lott said that even if you give them the benefit of the doubt and assume their number is correct, it’s still way cheaper than allowing these illegal immigrants to stay in the country. He said, “The cost for them committing crimes is going to be something hugely over 3x the cost of deporting them.”
He went on to point out that the millions of illegal immigrants who have entered the country are also consuming social services like housing, food, medical care, and schooling. He says that all adds up to around another $150 billion in state and federal funds each year. . . .
Ethan Buchanan, “How Much Will Mass Deportation Cost?” KTRH, January 6, 2025.
As president Trump looks to restore and reform the FBI, a former Trump administration official warns that there is something else that needs to be included in the clean-up.
That would be reporting the true crime statistics.
“Everybody remembers David Muir’s correction of the president on that” said John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, “And, he was using data from 2022.”
Of course, the corrupt mainstream media never acknowledged the false claim, because it would have hurt the Biden-Harris regime, along with other Democrats.
“It distorts the discussion” Lott told KTRH, “And part of what goes on is that people who have an agenda, if you allow them to distort and control the data you allow them with their agendas to control the discussion on things.”
The FBI has been doing this years, and sadly the politicization and weaponization within the department, even includes the data.
“If we can’t get accurate data on crime, we can’t accurately talk about how to fix crime problems” noted Lott.
At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. Ending the crime and making our cities safe again. That all starts with truth and transparency, and putting an end to the data distortions. . . .
Historical reports indicate a troubling trend of the FBI downplaying the effectiveness of armed citizens in preventing crime.
While the bureau asserts that only 14 of the 350 active shooter incidents from 2014 to 2023 involved civilians successfully stopping attackers, independent research suggests a starkly different reality.
According to the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), armed citizens intervened in approximately 180 active shooter incidents during the same timeframe, significantly elevating the potential for saving innocent lives.
This discrepancy indicates that the FBI’s crime data may be manipulated for political purposes, ultimately influencing national discourse surrounding gun rights and crime prevention.
The 2022 and 2023 statistics released by the FBI have further compounded concerns about transparency.
Just prior to the recent elections, the FBI quietly revised its 2022 homicide data, altering a reported 2.1% decline in violent crime to an alarming 4.5% increase. . . .
New Jersey had to change its concealed carry regime after the SCOTUS Bruendecision. NJ lawmaker credits drop in gun violence to surge in concealed carry permits.
The Left never gets tire of the “Wild West” scare tactic, even though it never works out that way.
Anyway, there was a 16% decline in victims of violent crime from 2023 to 2024. That is substantial.
Meanwhile, the number of concealed carry permit applications surged by more than 8,000% since the Bruen ruling, with over 57,000 permits approved post-decision.
More winning.
And you can find more about John Lott’s book at the following link. More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws.
“More Guns, Less Crime – New Jersey Edition,” 357 Magnum, February 6, 2025.
According to a recent estimate by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), over 21.5 million Americans are now licensed to carry a firearm in the United States. And the numbers are growing — the NRA-ILA posted that the number of concealed handgun permits reached 18.66 million in 2019 – a 304% increase since 2007.
Not long before last November’s election, the FBI quietly released revised numbers that reveal that, rather than decreasing by 2.1%, violent crime in 2022 had actually increased by 4.5%. . . .
The person who noticed the quiet change to the crime data was John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC). His research showed that the adjustments represented a net increase of 80,029 more violent crimes in 2022, including 1,699 more murders, 7,780 more rapes, 33,459 more robberies and 37,091 more aggravated assaults. Those are obviously important figures to the 1,699 people who were murdered, the 7,780 raped and so on.
“A major weakness for reported crime data is that most crimes aren’t reported to the police,” Lott said in a report on the revised statistics. “Murder has the advantage because the vast majority of murders are reported. But the revised data for 2021 and 2022 shows a net increase of 1,699 more murders. How do you miss 1,699 murders?”
In an October 2024 report posted at RealClearInvestigations (RCI), Lott wrote that even three weeks after the revised numbers were released, the FBI hadn’t bothered to explain—or even acknowledge—the significant change.
“I have checked the data on total violent crime from 2004 to 2022,” said Carl Moody, a professor at the College of William & Mary who specializes in studying crime. “There were no revisions from 2004 to 2015, and from 2016 to 2020, there were small changes of less than one percentage point. The huge changes in 2021 and 2022, especially without an explanation, makes it difficult to trust the FBI data.”
Moody also noted that nobody in the mainstream media reported on the important story about the increase.
“With the media using the 2022 FBI data to tell us for a year that crime was falling, it is disappointing that there are no news articles correcting that misimpression,” Moody told RCI. “We will have to see whether the FBI later also revises the 2023 numbers.”
That fact was hammered home by an October report by CBS News claiming to “fact check” both Trump and Harris on their violent crime claims.
“Crime researchers tell CBS News that while both are valuable metrics, the FBI data Harris cites is more reliable, and she is correct that it suggests violent crime is at a near 50-year low,” the report stated, completely ignoring how those FBI statistics had been revised three weeks earlier.
The “fact check” also stated that “Harris’ claim that violent crime dropped to a ‘near 50-year low’ is accurate. But again, using the FBI’s revised statistics—which CBS apparently chose to ignore—that claim would quickly be shown to be patently false.
Even with the revised data, the FBI numbers likely underreport violent crime. One of the problems with the FBI data is that not all police agencies report crimes to the FBI; in fact, many stopped doing so in 2021 and 2022. This greatly skews the numbers. Prior to 2021, about 97% of police departments around the nation reported their crime data to the FBI; however, in 2021, 37% of police departments didn’t report their data. And in 2022, 31% of police departments, including those in big cities like New York City and Los Angeles, weren’t reporting their data to the FBI. Consequently, crime numbers appeared to be substantially lower than they really were. . . .
Susanne Edward, “A New Sheriff Is In Town,” America’s 1st Freedom, February 2, 2025.
Placing a sign that reads “no weapons allowed” is simply not going to deter criminals hell-bent on hurting others. The uncomfortable truth most politicians don’t want to confront is that gun-free zones function as safe spaces for criminals willing to inflict large amounts of harm. According to research from pro-Second Amendment economist John Lott, 94% of mass shootings have occurred in gun-free zones across the United States. Such an alarming trend will continue if policymakers operate on the flawed assumption that gun violence can be magically legislated away. . . .
Jose Nino, “Arizona Bill Would Arm School Teachers and Staff,” Ammoland, February 5, 2025.
I just watched an eye-opening video by John Stossel featuring John Lott from the Crime Prevention Research Center, and it’s time we talk about something the mainstream media and Hollywood don’t want you to hear.
The Myth That Succesful Self-Defense is Rare
You’ve probably heard the narrative: “Guns in self-defense are rare.” This line gets parroted by the FBI, media, and every anti-gun politician out there. But here’s the deal – it’s not the whole story. John Lott, a criminal justice researcher, points out that the FBI’s data misses a ton of cases where civilian gun use prevents crimes or saves lives.
Let’s break it down with some real-life examples:
— In South Carolina, a nightclub shooting was stopped by a concealed carrier, but you barely heard about it because 49 deaths in Orlando grabbed all the headlines.
— In Titusville, Florida, a man with a concealed carry permit stopped a potential mass shooting at an elementary school event. Local news covered it, but it didn’t make national news.
— Raul Mendez, at a party, used his legally carried gun to stop a shooter, saving perhaps dozens of lives, including his own family’s.
These stories are out there, but they’re often buried or ignored because they don’t fit the anti-gun narrative.
Hollywood and liberal politicians have a narrative they want to push – one where guns are only bad. They partner with screenwriters to paint gun owners as reckless or foolish. But here’s the truth: in many instances, just showing a gun has been enough to deter crime.
The Data Gap
The FBI admits their data isn’t intended to capture every incident but rather gives a “baseline understanding.” This means a lot of defensive gun uses go unreported or underreported. Lott’s research at CrimeResearch.org aims to fill this gap by documenting these incidents. . . .
Tred Law. “The Truth About Guns Saving Lives – A Closer Look ~ VIDEO,” Ammoland, January 31, 2025.
