Do you carry a gun?
Bad idea, says Hollywood. Civilians with guns are fools. You are more likely to hurt yourself than the bad guy.
“Leave it to a good guy with a gun to really screw things up,” says a cop on ABC’s “The Rookie.”
Liberal politicians agree.
“A good guy with a gun will stop bad guys with a gun?! It doesn’t hold up,” smiles New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“An adolescent rescue fantasy,” adds an “expert” on CBS.
Now, I’m not a gun person. I was raised among lefty gun haters. I assumed Hollywood and “experts” were right.
When I saw economist John Lott’s book, “More Guns, Less Crime,” I rolled my eyes. But now I understand that Lott makes a good point.
“A couple million times a year, people use guns defensively,” he says in my new video. “When a civilian tries to stop one of these instances, they’re overwhelmingly successful.”
But FBI reports say self-defense with guns is rare.
“They’re simply missing a huge number of cases,” says Lott. He’s posted a list of cases the FBI ignored, where civilians stopped shooters.
The FBI lists the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. Forty-nine people were killed.
“One week afterwards,” says Lott, “there was a similar attack at a nightclub in South Carolina.”
But there, a civilian shot the attacker.
“Still had 125 rounds of ammunition on him when he was stopped!” says Lott.
Somehow, the FBI missed that case, along with so many others.
When 17 people were killed at Parkland, Florida, that got lots of news coverage.
Few people know that “just a few months later in Titusville, Florida, (at) an elementary school,” says Lott, “a man came up, started firing his gun. Fortunately, a hot dog vendor (with a) concealed handgun was able to wound the attacker and stop him before he was able to kill.”
“Stepped in and saved a lot of people’s lives,” said a local police officer.
But the FBI somehow missed that, too …
Lott’s list of ignored cases includes the story of Raul Mendez, who was at a party when a guest opened fire.
“Bullet enters right by my ear, goes straight through my face and out my left eye … Blind from one eye and covered in blood, I unloaded four rounds and finished him off.”
Mendez probably saved the lives of a dozen people at that party.
I tell him, “The FBI records instances like this, but somehow they have no record of your case.”
“They’re not recording the true numbers,” Mendez replies.
I ask Lott why.
“There’s a lot of political views that infect their data,” he says. “I had interactions with the people in the FBI … I had people tell me, ‘Well, I’m a Democrat.'”
I push back. “The FBI, who carry guns, are anti-gun? It’s not believable.”
“They think that it would go against the narrative that they want to push,” answered Lott.
Stossel TV asked the FBI why they don’t include self-defense cases like Mendez’. They replied that their data is: “not intended to explore all facets of active shooter incidents.”
Too bad politicians and the media don’t realize that.
“It’d be great if we could just make all guns disappear,” says Lott. “But when you ban guns, it’s basically the most law-abiding good citizens who obey. Every place in the world that’s banned all guns or all handguns has seen murder rates go up.”
So-called experts like a psychiatrist featured on Detroit’s CBS station confidently say, “There haven’t been good guys with a gun who stop mass shootings. It’s the kind of thing you learn reading comic books!”
Mendez replies: “I was prepared, and it saved lives. There’s no comic book story about that. Those are facts. That’s what happened. I was there. I’m sure there’s many more out there that go unheard.”
Photo by Jay Rembert on Unsplash
I believe if all the good guys had guns at least in their homes, crime would be reduced greatly.
Thank you, John Stossel, for your accurate American Western values. I’ve always been a fan. Thanks again.
There’s a reason our ancestors demanded a Bill of Rights in our Constitution! To protect ourselves from perverted Government. Today that happens to be Democrats ðŸ˜.
Left wingers want We the People disarmed and vulnerable to enable their intended totalitarian takeover.
I live in Alaska where everybody carries so there isn’t a whole lot of problems. I have a concealed weapon permit and as a Marine veteran Of the Vietnam era believe in carrying personal protection for me and my family. Makes everyone safe.
Bottom line: You’re NOT getting our guns. I hope that is crystal clear.
The other point not made by the left is the number of shooting incidents that didn’t occur out of fear that the other person was armed, even when they didn’t see the gun. As an example, out here in rural Missouri, almost everyone is armed as a way of life. You’re not likely to see a home invasion here because the homeowner sees you coming a long way off and is already prepared and the bad guys know it.
John, I love your work.
Interesting article. It doesn’t surprise me that defensive gun uses (DGU) are underreported. I carry a gun, concealed, and pray that I never need to shoot anyone, but am prepared to if necessary.
I believe that John Lott cited in his research findings that the majority of successful DGUs don’t involve the good guy actually having to shoot. The display of a gun by an armed citizen who appears prepared to use it is usually enough to end an incident.
This makes sense to me. And it’s easy to imagine how this type of DGU is even more underreported than those incidents in which shots are actually fired, as it also doesn’t fit the mainstream narrative.
One of the reasons I’m still alive, today, is that – while living in another state that protected one’s right to defend oneself – I had a legal handgun with me when a large, berserk driver was in my car, clutching my shirt front, screaming that he was going to kill me. I didn’t consider my handgun optional, and neither did the police, later reviewing the event.
Ignorant non-gun owners obviously can not begin to understand that those of us with concealed permits (which should not be required), training, and regular practice are well qualified to stop violent crime before the criminal can hurt the innocent, or at least minimize their victims. It’s a proven fact, which the radical gun ban groups and politicians do their best to hide.