By David Codrea
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- A purported study “claiming right-to-carry laws increase violent crime” is “flawed and misleading,” an assessment by Crime Prevention Research Center responds. Yet despite serious concerns over methodology and bias, the media is spreading it far and wide, negatively influencing public perceptions on the right to bear arms.
“It has been covered in Newsweek, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, Vice, Snopes, and many newspapers such as Newsday and the Salt Lake City Tribune,” the research and education organization headed by economist and author John Lott observes. “As is typical … there is no attempt to mention or respond to prior criticisms, and he just repeats the same, seriously biased methods and errors.
“[W]hen the media explicitly describes a study as ‘debunking’ John Lott’s previous research, you might think a reporter would call up Lott and get his take on it,” CPRC further observes. “It has been two weeks after the … research started getting attention, and not a single reporter has contacted him.”
While telling, that’s hardly surprising. Monopoly of violence agitators and their media amplifiers have had the long knives out for Lott ever since he definitively challenged the gun-grabber orthodoxy and demonstrated “More Guns, Less Crime” is more than a title. His follow-on work, “The Bias Against Guns” definitively demonstrated how the last sources to be trusted for accurate and complete information comprise the supposedly “objective” press.
“Since permit holders commit virtually no crimes, right-to-carry laws can’t increase violent crime rates,” CPRC explains, citing a glaring “flaw” in the “study” that goes unmentioned in media accounts. “You can’t get the 1.5 to 20 percent increases in violent crime rates that a few of their estimates claim with only thousandths of one percent of permit holders committing violent crimes. To put it differently, states would have to be misreporting 99%+ of crimes committed by permit holders for their results to be possible.”
That hardly matters to those with plenty of lucrative funding incentives to crank out the junk science, and to cheerleader “journalists” who know that most “consumers” will never be exposed to a critical analysis of the canned narrative they’re parroting. Once the headlines have been absorbed, reinforced biases will make unquestioning voters receptive to politicians promising more disarmament legislation.
That’s why it is critical for gun owner rights advocates to realize they will never get a fair shake in the media. If they want the truth to get out, it’s up to them to act as force multipliers and share links using whatever means at hand, including emails and social media.
If you don’t, no one else will.
Tangentially related:
Florida Carry Takes Norman Open Carry Case to U.S. Supreme Court
“A Florida gun group has filed an appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court in a case dealing with how Florida regulates open carry for weapons and firearms. On Monday, Florida Carry Inc. filed an appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court in the Dale Norman vs. Florida case, a case revolving around how Florida regulates concealed weapons permit holders and the accidental brandishing of firearms.”
This will be one to watch. “Intermediate scrutiny” is an insult. Stephen P. Halbrook is among the best. The question now is “Will SCOTUS agree to hear it?”
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.