Black Guns Matter founder Maj Toure noted that over 90 percent of mass shootings happen in “gun-free zones,” a figure that was revealed by John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center. . . .
Fortunately, Dr. John R. Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center does science the old-fashioned way: he does it honestly with factual, reproducible research. He also makes his methodology and data sets available, rare practices in these days of “trust the science” without evidence to inspire that trust.
At the beginning of this year, the media was running headlines like National Public Radio’s: “Violent crime is dropping fast in the U.S. – even if Americans don’t believe it.” “At some point in 2022 … there was just a tipping point where violence started to fall and it just continued to fall,” NPR claimed. But now the FBI has itself admitted its violent crime numbers were way off.
How far off? NBC isn’t even in the ballpark:
While the FBI claims that serious violent crime has fallen by 5.8% since Biden took office, the NCVS numbers show that total violent crime has risen by 55.4%. Rapes are up by 42%, robbery by 63%, and aggravated assault by 55% during Biden’s term. Since the NCVS started, the largest previous increase over three years was 27% in 2006, so the increase under Biden was slightly more than twice as large.
The increases shown by the NCVS during the Biden-Harris administration are by far the largest percentage increases over any three years, slightly more than doubling the previous record.
But Americans, as noted, aren’t anti-immigration. They just don’t like illegal immigration, as polls plainly show, and they especially don’t like criminals coming here and costing the economy hundreds of billions of dollars while committing violent crimes and disrupting communities.
And no, those aren’t made-up amounts. The Crime Prevention Research Center recently estimated that crime from the “top targets” of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations totaled $166.5 billion.
“Murders account for almost $153.8 billion of the $166.5 billion in estimated criminal victimization costs. Another $6 billion involves sexual assaults/offenses, and an additional $5.2 billion comes from sexual assaults and sexual offenses,” wrote John Lott, Jr., president of the CPRC. . . .
The Crime Prevention Research Center recently estimated that crime from the “top targets” of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations totaled $166.5 billion.
“Murders account for almost $153.8 billion of the $166.5 billion in estimated criminal victimization costs. Another $6 billion involves sexual assaults/offenses, and an additional $5.2 billion comes from sexual assaults and sexual offenses,” wrote John Lott, Jr., president of the CPRC. . . .
There is nothing safe about disarming the law-abiding while leaving criminals emboldened. A gun-free zone is a target—an irresistible siren call to those who want to kill as many as possible, as quickly as possible. Nearly 94% of mass public shootings since 1950 have occurred in gun-free zones, according to research from the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), which analyzed data on mass shootings in the U.S. over the last several decades. Why? Because murderers are cowards, not crusaders. They seek defenseless victims, not resistance. . . .
One of the prominent advantages of concealed carry is its deterrent effect. When potential criminals notice a business owner carrying a concealed firearm, they are likely to reconsider their actions. This risk assessment often discourages targeted criminal behavior.
For example, a study by the Crime Prevention Research Center revealed that states with higher rates of concealed carry permits tend to experience lower rates of violent crime. A business owner demonstrating a proactive defense approach contributes positively not only to their establishment but also to the community’s safety.
Additionally, employees are likely to feel a heightened sense of security knowing that their employer is equipped to face threats. This feeling can improve morale, resulting in greater job satisfaction and greater customer service. . . .
In October, Dr. John Lott of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) broke the news that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had stealth-revised its reported violent crime data for 2022 to show a 4.5% increase, rather than the originally reported 2.1% decrease, for that year.
Among other things, that adjustment added 1,699 more murders for 2022. Given that the vast majority of murder crimes are reported, Lott asks, “How do you miss 1,699 murders?” . . .
In another instance of less than optimal transparency, an op-ed by Dr. John Lott earlier this fall discussed how the FBI missed or misidentified many cases of defensive gun use and refused to correct its data even after “the blatant omissions” had been pointed out. “The FBI dataset is missing so many defensive gun uses that it’s hard to believe it isn’t intentional and the fact that they never correct mistakes that are brought to their attention is even more damning.” . . .
ALN Gun News Desk, “FBI’s Missing Numbers,” American Liberty News, December 12. 2024.
The Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) has released the latest in its series of annual reports on trends in concealed carry permits in America.
The report, Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2024 (Nov. 29, 2024), by Dr. John Lott, Jr,. Carlisle E. Moody, and Rujun Wang, looked at the trends accompanying the exponential growth in carry permits. Although the permit number peaked in 2022, the drop in the number of concealed carry permits in 2024 compared to 2023 was relatively small (less than 2%), with at least 21.46 million adult permit-holders currently in the United States.
This minor drop was attributed to the recent, sharp rise in the number of states – currently 29 – that allow constitutional carry, pursuant to which qualified adults may carry without a permit (and without the fees and government paperwork that a permit requires). There were only 13 constitutional carry states seven years ago, but thanks to the NRA and sustained guns rights advocacy (here and here, for example), the growth in constitutional carry since then has been nothing short of remarkable. Florida tipped the United States into a majority constitutional carry nation in 2023 when it became the twenty-sixth state to pass a constitutional carry law, followed by Nebraska (2023), and Louisiana and South Carolina this year. “[W]hile permits are increasing in the non-Constitutional Carry states, they fell in the Constitutional Carry ones even though more people are clearly carrying in those states,” the report noted. . . .
Staff, “Concealed Carry Permit, Gun Sale Numbers Stay Strong in 2024,” Ammoland, December 18, 2024.
Dr. John Lott has been bringing the U.S. his statistical analysis on all things crime and firearm related via the Crime Prevention Research Center since 2013. Lott’s work on crime and the like dates back to a 1997 co-written article, “Crime, Deterrence and Right-To-Carry Concealed Handguns.” The CPRC has been producing annual reports on the number of concealed handgun permits since 2014. The latest, “Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2024,” was released around December 2nd.
The authors of the report are as follows: John R. Lott, Jr., president of the CPRC, Carlisle E. Moody, research director and emeritus professor of economics from College of William & Mary, and Rujun Wang, a research associate.
From the abstract: . . .
The report, Concealed Carry Permit Holders Across the United States: 2024 (Nov. 29, 2024), by Dr. John Lott, Jr,. Carlisle E. Moody, and Rujun Wang, looked at the trends accompanying the exponential growth in carry permits. Although the permit number peaked in 2022, the drop in the number of concealed carry permits in 2024 compared to 2023 was relatively small (less than 2%), with at least 21.46 million adult permit-holders currently in the United States. . . .
Another very positive metric in the CPRC report is that now close to half of all Americans live in a constitutional carry jurisdiction: “46.8% of Americans (157.6 million) now live in Constitutional Carry States, with 67.7% of the land in the country (2.57 million square miles).”
Permits, though, remain popular. Overall, 8.2% of American adults have permits; outside of the restrictive states of California and New York, that rises to about 9.8% of adults. Indiana has the highest concentration of concealed carry permittees, at 23.1% of the population, followed by Alabama (20.5%) and Colorado (17.7%). More than 10% of adults have a carry permit in each of 16 states. In terms of raw numbers, Florida is the top state with 2.46 million in-state permit holders.
Another noteworthy trend is that in jurisdictions that record gender and/or race of permit holders, the percentage of permit holders who are women or minorities (or both) has increased significantly. In the seven states with data by gender available for both 2012 and 2023/2024, the number of permits increased by 255% for women compared to 120% for men. In the four states with records regarding race for 2015 and 2021/2023/2024, “the number of permits grew 283.9% faster for blacks than for whites. Permits for Asians grew 219.2% faster than whites.” In a further illustration of the impact of constitutional carry laws, the report pointed out that in Texas, “there was a noticeable drop in the percent of permits issued [to] women and blacks after Constitutional Carry was adopted. It appears that both groups were relatively sensitive to the cost of permits.” In contrast, the non-constitutional carry states of “Hawaii, Maryland, and New Jersey have dramatically increased the permit fees,” and California has doubled the amount of time of the mandatory training to qualify for a permit, to at least 16 hours. “These rules,” according to the report, “would eventually prevent poor minorities, the very people who benefit the most from owning guns, from having them.” . . .
Staff, “Concealed Carry Permit, Gun Sale Numbers Stay Strong in 2024,” NRA-ILA, December 16, 2024.
