The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard about Gun Control Is Wrong

by John R. Lott Jr.

Book Overview

"If you want the truth the anti gunners don't want you to know you need a copy of The Bias Against Guns " Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes" This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0895261146
• ISBN13: 9780895261144
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing
• Length: 349 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Gun freedom 101 - as straight forward as it gets!

Gun Control has become a major political issue and usually a political weapon during election years. Whether you agree with gun control or agree that the second amendment has taken a real beating from the liberal groups, this book should provide a more in depth insight into why the things you read in the papers, see on TV and hear form some liberal politicians is not quite everything you need to know. Having read the author other book "More Guns, Less Crime", I was intrigued by how well the author defends his positions on guns, gun control and gun lobbyists. I was even more impressed by the arguments and the facts to back them up this book contains. What the author has done is take on the establishment and show that the media, the left and the PACs have distorted, obfuscated and demagogue the issues, leaving the people confused and in most cases scared. As a parent I am concerned about the weapons and guns and this book is tremendously compelling, showing that banning, limiting, controlling of weapons, including automatic and assault, hasn't lowered or decreased crime, in fact the opposite has occurred. Lott is very well researched and very well documented. He states his case with a great deal of confidence and after reading the text I find myself agreeing with just about everything. I found that the book confirms the statements "It is not the gun that does the damage, it the person using the gun." Overall - well done!

An evaluation of bias against firearms by the media

Dr. John R. Lott is primarily an economist who has held positions at the University of Chicago, Yale, Stanford, UCLA and other respected institutions of higher learning. He was also the chief economist of the United States Sentencing Commission in 1988-89. He is no lightweight in the field, and he knows how to interpret statistics. Not only statistics that he himself has gathered, but those for every county in the United States over a period of several years that were gathered by the United States government.Using the government's own figures, he wrote "More Guns Less Crime," evaluating the violent crime results emanating from the 33 states with "must issue" concealed carry laws as opposed to those without. The "must issue" laws, in effect, insist that law-abiding citizens who pass certain requirements must be issued a concealed carry permit for a handgun, regardless of the local sheriff's feelings about gun-control or an armed populace.His evaluation of the statistics? Those states without the "must issue" laws, many of whom forbid the law-abiding to carry the means of defending themselves regardless of the U.S. Constitution to the contrary, have a considerably higher rate of violent crime and shootings, and in effect because of their gun-control laws are costing their citizenry hundreds of lives, thousands of injuries, and millions in property loss and damage.John Lott says, on page 13 of this, his new book, "My role as an economist is not to consider whether Americans have a 'right' to own guns, to keep them unlocked, to sell them at gun shows, to carry guns with them wherever they go, and so on. My only objective is to study the measurable effect that gun laws have on incidents of violence, and to let the facts speak for themselves."And this he does, very effectively.In "Bias Against Guns" he does an admirable job of demonstrating how the press and television virtually always report shootings of children nationally, although such events (as he shows) are extremnely rare--for example, whereas 34 children under the age of six were accidentally shot in one year, in the entire nation, 43 were drowned in 5-gallon buckets!He also looks at multiple shootings, where two or more people are shot by the same perpetrator, as in schools, restaurants, shopping malls and other public venues--acts of terrorism included. IN this he looks not only at the United States, but also at Israel where such events are every day occurrences, and how the Israelis handle the problem, and how best to deter such events.As he points out, the media almost never report any of the 2,500,000 cases where firearms are used for defense against criminal attack and dangerous animals.As he says, brandishing a gun and thereby causing an attacker to flee is not news. When man bites dog, that is news but when dog bites man--a much more frequent event--that is NOT news.Not only the press, but the government also--particularly under the administration of Bill Clinton--spent millions

If you want to change minds about guns, buy this book

Get your hands on this book. Lott does for the media coverage of guns what Goldberg's and Coulter's books on media bias in general. If anything, his discussion is more convincing since he has actually counted up the different types of stories and isn't simply relying on the annecdotal discussion found in the other books. His book is also broader, with him looking at how the anti-gun agenda is pushed through everything from polling to government reports. He also explodes myths about the risks of having guns in the home and shows that the media bias of exaggerating those risks actually puts people's lives in danger.Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down.

Fantastic Read - Facts Over Fear On The Gun Control Debate

John Lott's 1st book, "More Guns, Less Crime," was an eye-opening look into what the science shows about the presence of guns in society and clearly illustrated the benefits of armed, law abiding citizens. His latest book, "The Bias Against Guns," expands further into media and governmental bias on the issue of guns and he debunks many of the "common sense" proposals for gun regulation; showing that these proposals actually increase crime while having no effect on accidental gun deaths.Dr. Lott is a brilliant economist and he approaches his subject with a detached and unemotional, scientific process. In "The Bias Against Guns," he takes the reader through the progression of verifying findings and considering alternate explanations. The result is a thoroughly convincing work that argues for gun policy based upon dispassionate science instead of vitriolic and emotional claims made by the media and some in government.Part I of "The Bias Against Guns" is a careful analysis of how government and the media have unfairly framed the gun control argument to show only the costs of guns in our society. Liberal media and government have - for many decades - systemically and purposefully ignored the benefits of gun ownership in America and around the world. Many people who view themselves as clear-minded independent thinkers will be shocked when they read this section of the book. An open-minded appraisal will reveal that a distaste and fear of guns is far less rational than a fear of automobiles, or, for that matter, five gallon buckets. Guns, cars and buckets are tools that have costs (dangers) and benefits. Part I of "The Bias Against Guns" shows clearly how the media and the government have advanced a one-sided, costs-only view of guns in our society.Part II of "The Bias Against Guns" is a detailed, scientific evaluation of many different gun control measures. In his previous book, John Lott largely restricted his research to the costs and benefits of laws permitting ordinary citizens to carry concealed handguns. In "The Bias Against Guns," Lott evaluates laws such as safe storage requirements, the effects of gun control on multiple victim public shootings, "gun free" zones, bans on "assault weapons" and restrictions on gun shows. Again, Lott's dispassionate analysis gives these issues very fair treatment, evaluating all possible explanations for his findings. The results are sometimes surprising but always based upon scientific evidence and not emotional presuppositions.If you are a proponent of law-abiding citizens owning guns, you will find much in "The Bias Against Guns" that will support your point of view. If you are among the many Americans that are more afraid of having a gun in your home than a car in your garage, I strongly urge you to read John Lott's latest book. You will come away convinced that our nations gun policy should be based upon what the science of the matter reports and not the liberal media's version of "common sense

The Blurbs Say It All

Even for a cynic such as myself, Lott's documentation of how the media and the government distort our perceptions of guns is amazing. The research that went into this book is impressive. He documents not only the imbalance in newscoverage but also how the media actually makes news to discredit guns. He shows how government studies systematically measure only the bad things that happen with guns and never discuss the benefits."If you want the truth the anti-gunners don't want you to know... you need a copy of The Bias Against Guns." --Sean Hannity, of Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes "John Lott's thoughtful study should be read by everyone interested in the control of violent crime, and protection against terrorism." --Vernon L. Smith, 2002 Nobel Prize Winner in Economics "John Lott's 1998 book, More Guns, Less Crime, created quite a stir among the gun-control romantics, whose expressive advocacy involves neither sound analytics nor empirical evidence. In this follow-on book, The Bias Against Guns, Lott continues the struggle, and responds to his critics, motivated by his strong conviction that analysis and evidence must, finally, win the day." --James Buchanan, 1986 Nobel Prize Winner in Economics "Another major contribution by John Lott to the evidence on the effects--good and bad--of gun-control legislation. An important supplement to his More Guns, Less Crime."--Milton Friedman, 1976 Nobel Prize Winner in Economics "As a gun-toting rock 'n' roll star all my life, I have lived firsthand the outrageous media and Hollywood bias against good guys with guns forever. I laugh in their face. John Lott is my academic hero." --Ted Nugent, recording artist and author of Kill It & Grill It and Gods, Guns, & Rock 'n' Roll "[Lott] marshals unimpeachable evidence on how the anti-gun crusade, driven by sins of omission and commission, might actually be costing many more lives than it saves. You'll want to have this intellectual ammunition." --Walter E. Williams, economist and syndicated columnist "John Lott is a scholar's scholar and a writer's writer--and his book shows why. That gun ownership might bring social benefits as well as costs is a story we do not often see in the press, and Lott here explores why. With a blend of new data, evidence, and examples, he unpacks the bias against such stories in the media."--J. Mark Ramseyer, Harvard Law School professorMost impressively he also provides all his data to people who what to recheck the work that he has done on the benefits of keeping guns in the home as well as his work on gun shows, concealed handgun laws, one-gun-a-month rules, and "assault weapons" bans. The web site is noted in the book as (...).