The war on guns

About this book

The Second Amendment defender John R. Lott Jr., Ph.D., economist and gun rights advocate, goes beyond philosophical arguments to confront opponents of gun ownership with the facts. Through rigorous research and analysis of data, he has been able to show that increased gun possession can actually make people safer and reduce crime. Terrorists and mass murderers consciously pick targets where they know victims will be unable to defend themselves, and the push for more gun control only makes the types of attacks that we fear more likely to occur. The War on Guns has well-documented data, statistics, practical, legal, and moral arguments to support the natural right to self-defense. He looks into the many ways that anti-gun 'statistics' and 'research' have been used to perpetrate utter falsehoods and misleading propaganda, using the best evidence available data from natural experiments on the effects of gun regulations to compare the effects of alternative policies. Arrayed against him are the entire public health establishment and much of the media, but he carefully analyzes many of the arguments made against gun ownership and shows using both statistical and anecdotal evidence that they are incorrect. He also shows that wealthy opponents of gun ownership finance much fallacious "public health" research on the effects of guns. This is a valuable guide to a more balanced understanding of the issue of gun control.