Bret Baier's Special Report discusses the CPRC's research on Mass Public Shootings

More detailed information on the numbers used by Bret Baier on Fox News are available here, here, and here.  Peter Docey did make one mistake in discussing our research.  We were not subtracting off terrorist attacks from the totals.

New piece in Investor's Business Daily: "Obama Strategy Focuses On Guns, Not Terrorism"

Here is John Lott's piece in Investor's Business Daily evaluating Obama's first two domestic proposals to protect Americans from terrorism.

On Sunday night, President Obama offered Americans his strategy for protecting them from terrorism. No, he didn’t announce new measures to track down terrorists. Instead, he wants to track down our guns.
This is nothing new. Obama has pushed for more gun control after every mass public shooting. The proposal is the same: more background checks. In reality, the shootings would still have happened.
The first proposal is to keep people on the “no-fly” list from getting guns. However, none of the mass public shooters have been on the “no-fly” list. Even the San Bernardino killers, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, were not on the list. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security had recently cleared Malik to enter the country.
The president’s vague, second proposal is to “make it harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons.” The AR-15s used in the San Bernardino massacre are actually just semi-automatics that fire one bullet at a time. This gun uses the same bullets and fires them in just the same way that a normal hunting rifle does. The AR-15 just happens to look more like an “assault weapon.” . . .

The rest of the piece is available here.

Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) reads my recent National Review article on background checks on C-SPAN

The piece that Congressman Gohmert is reading is available here.

Talking to the Associated Press about the failure of gun control laws to stop mass public shootings

After each mass public shooting, President Obama and Hillary Clinton call for expanded background checks.  John Lott talked to the Associated Press in an article entitled "California's tough gun laws didn't make a difference in recent attack."  The article appeared in hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV outlets across the United States (e.g., Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Boston Globe, San Francisco Examiner, Fox News Latino, Kansas City Star, and Miami Herald, and even the left wing Salon and Huffington Post) and the world (Canadian TV, China Post, New Zealand Herald, Korea Herald).

As a result, gun control advocates in the days since the shooting have called for more stringent laws in California and nationwide. At least two state lawmakers say they will propose measures to close what they consider loopholes in the state's gun laws.
Crime Prevention Research Center president John Lott, a critic of additional gun laws who is often cited by the gun lobby, argued that the shooting illustrates how expanded background checks supported by President Barack Obama do not stop mass public shootings.
He noted that California, Colorado and Oregon — sites of the three most recent shootings — already have such laws in place.
"We're being told that even though these laws didn't stop these attacks in these states, somehow they would work in the rest of the country," he said. "I know the claim is, 'we don't expect it to do everything but it will do some.' Maybe they could point to one case where these laws would make a difference." . . .

On CNN with Carol Costello discussing what can be done to stop mass public shootings

John Lott talked to Carol Costello about misleading claims in the gun control debate and what can be done stop these mass public shootings (Thursday, December 3, 2015 9:52 to 9:57 AM).  The youtube of the interview here doesn't include the introduction where Costello uses the BBC's claim about mass public shootings in the United States and also a source asserting that there have been 355 mass shootings so far this year.  Lott tried to correct the record on these two claims before going into the rest of the interview.  Newsbusters compares how contentious Lott's interview was compared to that with Costello's discussion with David Gross from the Brady Campaign.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST: The growing frequency of the incidents highlighted during this report from the BBC.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE BBC ANCHOR: Just another day in the United States of America, another day of gunfire, panic and fear.
COSTELLO: That's how this incident is being reported overseas, the BBC calling it "just another day" of gun violence in the United States. And, according to at least one unofficial tally, the numbers support that claim. Shootingtracker.com, which defines mass shootings as incidents in which four or more people, including the gunman, are killed or injured by gunfire, says San Bernardino was the 355th -- the 355th mass shooting this year alone. It was also, according to Shootingtracker's definition, the second worst mass shooting in the United States. The first took place early Wednesday morning in Savannah, Georgia, where a gunman killed one and wounded three others. So, let's talk about guns in America. John Lott is the founder and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and author ofMore Guns, Less Crimes. Good morning, John.
JOHN LOTT: Good morning.
COSTELLO: John, you know gun rights advocates and those in favor of more gun laws, they always talk at cross purposes. They can't seem to get on the same page. And I guess I don't feel like having an argument with you this morning. I kind of just want to find out how we can stop these shootings together. How can both sides come up with a plan together?
LOTT: Well, sure. I mean, if you have proposals you want to talk about, I'm happy to do so. I suppose, part of it, though, is inflammatory claims, such as the two that you just went through from the BBC, as well as the tracking numbers there. I mean, first of all, these occur --
COSTELLO: No, John, let's be serious. There are too-
LOTT: -at about the same rate in Europe-
COSTELLO: -many mass shootings in this country. John, let's be clear. There are too many mass shootings in this country.
LOTT: I know, but I'm just saying-
COSTELLO: We've seen several in just the last couple of weeks.
LOTT: -we should be accurate.
COSTELLO: So let's just concentrate on that. There's a lot of gun violence in this country. We can all agree on that.
LOTT: But the point was, I was just saying in order -- there's a reason why you started with those two things. I'm just saying, just to be accurate, Europe has about the same rate of mass public shootings as we have here in the United States. France, this year, has had 508 people killed or wounded in mass public shootings. In the entire Obama presidency, there has been a total of 424. And this tracking number that you just had, the vast majority of those are gang fights, which are bad. Gang fights over drug turf are bad things--
COSTELLO: John, let's just concentrate on the matter at hand --
LOTT: But it's, I think, misleading.
COSTELLO: -- gun violence in the United States and how we can stop it, and how we can prevent these mass shootings, how we can get mentally unbalanced people from getting a hold of guns. How can we do that? How can we all get on the same page?
LOTT: Right. Well, I think you're going to have a hard time stopping terrorists or others from getting a hold of weapons. I mean, if you really believe someone is a danger to others, you should lock them up. But simply going and telling them they're not going to be able to legally buy a gun when these individuals, such as the ones in San Bernardino, I wouldn't be surprised if they were planning this a year or more in advance. It's very common for these types of mass public shootings to be planned at least six months, and sometimes even a couple years in advance. And if somebody's planning that long in advance, they're going to make the pipe bombs. They're gonna go and get a hold of the other the weapons that are there and this is very difficult to stop them. The question is, what's your backup plan? What do you do when you can't stop these individuals from making these types of weapons? And I hope we're beginning to get to the place where we allow individuals to go and defend themselves. California, it's extremely difficult for anybody to go and get a concealed carry permit, to be able to go and defend themselves against these types of attacks. The type of attack that occurred at Planned Parenthood on Friday or this or at the Oregon school or all places where --
COSTELLO: But let's be honest about one thing, John. Two of the weapons that these suspects used were purchased legally. In fact, all the guns, as far as we know, were purchased legally. So, even though there are tight gun controls in the state of California, it's still easy to buy a high-powered weapon in the United States. And that's because there are so many guns out there. Over the Thanksgiving Day holiday, 185,000 firearms were purchased -- that's a record for the holiday season. Lots and lots of people have guns in this country, yet these mass shootings keep happening. So how can more guns be the answer?
LOTT: Well, the question is where people are allowed to have guns. If you ban guns from certain areas, people like these killers don't -- aren't stopped by the bans. The people who obey the laws are law-abiding good citizens, who are no longer able to defend themselves, who are essentially sitting ducks. You make it safer for the attackers to go and commit these crimes because they don't have to worry about law-abiding citizens being able to stop them.
COSTELLO: Alright. I have to leave it there, John.
LOTT: Thank you very much.

On the Laura Ingraham Show to discuss the laws in California and other states and France that have had mass public shootings

I talked to Laura about the shooting in San Bernardino and what we could learn from the laws in states that have recent mass public shootings (Thursday, December 4, 2015 from 9:22 to 9:30 AM).

 Laura Ingraham’s show is heard by over 2 million people.

On NewsMax TV with Steve Malzberg: On some of the anti-gun rhetoric in the wake of the CA attack

Yesterday, I joined Steve Malzberg to discuss some of the gun control claims made in the wake of the California terror attack.

Fox News Sunday uses CPRC data on Mass Public Shootings

One correction on what Chris Wallace said. Our data only looked at mass public shootings for the US and Europe, not the entire world.  Our research can be found here.  Regarding Juan Williams comparison across countries this discussion might be helpful.

Transcript from the panel discussion on Fox News Sunday:

WALLACE:  You know, Brit, some would argue that this wasn’t another mass shooting, this was a terrorist attack and so, therefore, you shouldn't just judge it as the president seemed to initially, like another Newtown or another, you know, shooting at a movie theater.
Having said that, there was a fascinating debate over mass shootings that we saw this week.  According to one definition, we have more than one mass shooting a day.  There were 355 in San Bernardino in 337 days.
On the other hand, there’s other analysis that says, if you look at it different, that we are eighth in the world when it comes to just being behind lawless countries like Norway and Belgium. So, there seems, and in fact, by all measures, gun violence has gone down dramatically in this country. . . .
WALLACE:  Well, actually, it turns out in terms of mass shootings, which is what we're specifically talking about here, it doesn't.  If you look at it per capita and you take out gang violence, which is -- well, it's a different deal.
WILLIAMS:  I’m just saying.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE:  It's a different deal.  We're behind Norway and Belgium.  So it’s not at all clear that there's a pattern here of such rampant gun violence. . . .

France suffered more casualties (murders and injuries) from mass public shootings in 2015 than the US has suffered during Obama’s entire presidency (524 to 428)

“The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.  And there’s some steps we could take, not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings, but to improve the odds that they don’t happen as frequently.” –President Obama, interview that aired on CBS Evening News, Dec. 2, 2015
“With respect to Planned Parenthood, obviously, my heart goes out to the families of those impacted. … I say this every time we’ve got one of these mass shootings: This just doesn’t happen in other countries.” –Obama, news conference at COP21 climate conference in Paris, Dec. 1, 2015
“We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.” –Obama, statement on shootings at Umpqua Community College, Roseburg, Ore., Oct. 1, 2015
“You don’t see murder on this kind of scale, with this kind of frequency, in any other advanced nation on Earth.” –Obama, speech at U.S. Conference of Mayors, June 19, 2015
“At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.” –Obama, statement on the shooting in Charleston, S.C., June 18, 2015

Yet, despite the impression that President Obama has been creating, France suffered more casualties (murders and injuries) from mass public shootings in 2015 than the US has suffered during Obama’s entire presidency (524 to 428).

A systematic look at mass public shootings from the US and Europe is available here.

Please click on screenshots to enlarge. UPDATED

Weapons used in San Bernardino Attack were all purchased in California, so California's governor attacks gun laws in neighboring states?

While President Obama and Hillary Clinton have been touting the gun laws found in California, Colorado, and Oregon as the solution to mass public shootings, they ignore that the laws that they want to impose on the rest of the US failed to stop the crimes they claimed that they would stop in those states.  Even worse, while the existing laws didn’t stop shootings of the very kind Clinton claims that they will stop, they use these failures to justify imposing similar laws on the rest of the country.  Now Governor Jerry Brown, trying to divert attention from California's failed policies, is attacking neighboring states.  From Fox News:

In wake of the San Bernardino massacre which left 14 dead earlier this week, California Gov. Jerry Brown went on the attack Saturday slamming neighboring states’ gun laws. 

Brown told the Sacramento Bee that Nevada and Arizona are a “gigantic back door through which any terrorist can walk.” Brown was in France for climate talks and was noncommittal on whether to strengthen the state’s gun control laws. 

“California has some of the toughest gun control laws of any state,” Brown said. “And Nevada and Arizona are wide open, so that’s a gigantic back door through which any terrorist can walk.” . . . 

The weapons used in the atrocity committed by Sayed Riswan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were purchased legally in California. . . .