Author: John Lott

A favorite talking point from the Biden White House is that guns are the leading cause of death of children. The problem is that it is false. “The number one cause of death of the children in America is gun violence,” Vice President Kamala Harris claimed on June 2. Later the White House tweeted, “Guns are the #1 KILLER of CHILDREN.” President Biden has made the same claim multiple times this year. The Washington Post parroted this claim, running the headline: “Why guns are America’s number one killer of children.” Similarly, the NPR headline says: “Firearms overtook auto accidents as the leading cause of death…

As gun violence has spiked across the country, Republicans have pointed to the steady stream of shootings in Democratic-controlled cities such as Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis to argue that strict gun laws are not the main driver of mayhem. In response, Democrats and their supporters have tried to turn the tables on the GOP by noting that gun violence is highest in Republican states: “Gun Violence Worse in Red States. It’s Not Even Close,” a headline in Politico proclaimed; “Red States Have Higher Gun Death Rates Than Blue States,” Forbes reported. The conflicting storylines underscore how various data sets and definitions can be…

Biden’s gun control speech on Friday at the National Safer Communities Summit in Connecticut got attention because the president nonsensically concluded with “God save the Queen, man.” However, this was not his only incoherent claim. In his speech, Biden stated: “Put a pistol on a brace, and it ma- — turns into a gun. Makes them where you can have a higher-caliber weapon — a higher-caliber bullet coming out of that gun. It’s essentially turning it into a short-barreled rifle, which has been a weapon of choice by a number of mass shooters.” Of course, a “stabilizing brace” doesn’t turn…

In just four years in office, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro introduced reforms that increased gun ownership six-fold. But on Jan. 1, on his first act in office, the newly inaugurated Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed an executive order banning sales of guns and ammunition and limiting people to a maximum of three guns. Lula also banned concealed carry and is moving to take away gun ownership licenses issued under Bolsonaro. Naturally, gun-control supporters are thrilled, but none of the leading academics who support these policies are willing to put their money where their mouths are and bet that murder rates will fall.…

President Biden traveled to Monterey Park, California, the site of a mass public shooting that left 11 dead in January, to announce new executive actions on gun control. He touts the proposals as necessary “to reduce gun violence and make our communities safer.” But California already has all the gun control laws that Biden put forward, and yet it has a higher per capita rate of mass public shootings than the rest of the country. Measures already in place include background checks on all transfers of firearms, “red flag” gun confiscation laws, and an assault weapon ban. Even if Biden’s ideal…

A frequent talking point in the gun control debate is that Americans overwhelmingly support “common sense” gun control measures, such as universal background checks and red flag laws. The Biden administration referenced these surveys last month, when it announced that $231 million will go to states that enact “red flag” laws and push gun control policies. These surveys are constantly invoked in legislative hearings and in the media. But surveys often compress complicated bills down to one-sentence summaries, and the results are often unreliable. Gun control advocates claim that over 90% of Americans support universal background checks, which would require…

Red-flag laws do nothing but put innocent people at risk and make it easier to disarm opponents for political purposes. If a person is really a danger to himself or others, confiscating guns isn’t much of a solution. There are so many other ways for disturbed people to cause harm. But advocates of “red flag” laws want people to believe that simply taking away someone’s legally-owned guns means the problem is solved. Last week, the Biden administration announced it was using part of the $1.8 trillion massive spending bill passed after last year’s election to give $231 million to states that enact red-flag laws…

After the three public shootings over the last two weekends in California, Democrats are again clamoring for even more gun control laws. To California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the solution is to ban more places where people can carry permitted concealed handguns. Unfortunately, the proposal has nothing to do with stopping these attacks, and more gun-free zones only encourage these attacks. Other heavily Democratic states such as New York, New Jersey, and Maryland are making similar pushes. Concealed handgun permit holders didn’t commit those or other mass public shootings. Permit holders are also extremely law-abiding, being convicted of firearms-related violations at 1/12th the rate of police officers. With the country’s…

The Biden administration’s newly released regulations regarding “pistol-stabilizing braces” will instantly turn tens of thousands of law-abiding Americans into felons and create a national rifle registry. But the Biden administration and the media exaggerate the costs and ignore the benefits these braces produce. Few seem to realize that stabilizing braces for pistols were originally designed to allow wounded and disabled veterans who may have lost the use of part of their hand to hold handguns. They are essentially a strap attached to the gun. Disabled individuals are often viewed as easy targets by criminals, and stabilizers make it easier to…

You would never know Americans use guns four to five times more frequently to stop crime than to commit it, especially when entertainment TV portrays the opposite. When an alleged armed robber barged into Ranchito #4 Taqueria on Jan. 4, almost every customer froze with fear. But one good Samaritan, an unnamed 46-year-old man, quickly jumped into action to protect himself and his fellow patrons. He used a concealed gun to shoot the alleged perpetrator and returned the stolen cash to the terrified patrons, only later to discover that the firearm the alleged robber used was a fake. Despite the…