On The Lars Larson Show: The President's Smart Gun Agenda

CPRC's President, Dr. John Lott, talks with host Lars Larson about the President pushing for smart gun technology. There are issues with this technology that the president is not discussing. These guns are vulnerable to being jammed by radio signal jammer technology which will make them inoperable. As we know all too well with smartphones, fingerprint recognition technology is often slow and can malfunction. When your life may depend on a fingerprint being read in a split second for your gun to function, you want it to work.

These guns cost a great deal of money, preventing many Americans from being able to own them. This could be a real issue should these smart guns end up being mandated in the future.

(Friday, April 29, 2016 from 7:50 to 7:55 PM)

The interview is available here.

Huge increases in health insurance premiums to hit right before the November election

The death spiral for health insurers.  Higher prices will mean that more young people will drop their insurance and lead to higher losses and higher premiums.  From Politico:

The last thing Democrats want to contend with just a week before the 2016 presidential election is an outcry over double-digit insurance hikes as millions of Americans begin signing up for Obamacare. 

But that looks increasingly likely as health plans socked by Obamacare losses look to regain their financial footing by raising rates. 

Just a week after the nation’s largest insurer, UnitedHealth Group, pulled out of most Obamacare exchanges because it anticipates $650 million in losses this year, Aetna’s CEO said Thursday that his company expects to break even, but legislative fixes are needed to make the marketplace sustainable. 

“I think a lot of insurance carriers expected red ink, but they didn’t expect this much red ink,” said Greg Scott, who oversees Deloitte’s health plans practice. "A number of carriers need double-digit increases.” . . .

One big reason is lower-than-expected enrollment of younger, often healthier people who balance the costs of those who require more costly care. Roughly 12.7 million Americans signed up for Obamacare plans during the most recent open enrollment period. That’s far below the 22 million projected by the Congressional Budget Office, and it’s certain to decline as some drop out. 

“The pool is far less healthy than we forecast,” said Brad Wilson, CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, which says it lost $400 million on its exchange business during the first two years and is weighing whether to compete for Obamacare customers in 2017. “That’s an issue not just here in North Carolina, but all over. … We need more healthy people in the pool.” . . .

On the Big WIBC to talk with Greg Garrison about Hillary Clinton's changing views on Guns

I talked to WIBC's Greg Garrison about Hillary Clinton's views on the Second Amendment as well as the gun buyback in Australia. (12:45 to 1 PM, Monday, May 2, 2016)

The interview is available here.

I also talk to Greg about Ted Cruz (interview available here).

On The Steve Gruber Show: Discussion on Army Chief of Staff objecting to soldiers being armed while on base. Also a discussion on the taxing of a fundamental right

I spoke with host Steve Gruber about Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley saying that an 8 minute response time in an active shooter situation is adequate. The General objects to soldiers being able to carry weapons on military bases. Dr. Lott explains that this stance may be politically influenced by the Obama Administration. The General possibly does not want his military career impacted in a negative way if his views don't line up with the administration.

(April 12, 2016 6:45am 6:51am)

I also spoke with host Steve Gruber about the new gun-control law drafted by the attorney general of the Marianas Islands which imposes a $1,000 a year excise tax on each gun purchased.

(April 19, 2016 6:45am-6:52am)

On the Larry Elder Show to discuss Australia's Gun Buyback and the comparison with the Cash for Clunker's Program

CPRC's John Lott talked to Larry Elder on his national radio show about Australia's gun buyback and discussed his testimony before the Australia Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee.  They also talked about Hillary Clinton's comparison of the gun buyback to Obama's Cash for Clunkers program. (8:40 to 8:55 PM on Monday, May 2, 2016)

The segment for the radio show is available here.

On The Brett Winterble Show: Harriet Tubman (black, gun-toting, evangelical Christian, Republican Woman) to be new face of $20 bill

Dr. Lott speaks with host Brett Winterble (760 KFMB in San Diego) about Harriet Tubman replacing President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill and why this should be viewed as a positive thing for conservatives. There is also a discussion on Hillary Clinton saying the NRA is trying to intimidate elected officials. Dr. Lott explains that Bloomberg spends significantly more on pushing gun control than the NRA does on the other side. If spending money intimidates people, then the reverse is massively true.

(April 21, 2016 3:35pm-3:47pm PST)

See here and here.

At Fox News on new California Initiative to require background checks on ammunition purchases

Fox News has a news story on a new initiative being offered by California’s Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.  The initiative has includes proposals either not approved by the the Democrat controlled legislature because they were viewed as unworkable or vetoed by the governor.

. . .  Dr. John R. Lott, Jr., an economist and world recognized expert on guns and crime who founded and heads the Crime Prevention Research Center, a research and education organization dedicated to conducting academic quality research on the relationship between laws regulating the ownership or use of guns, crime, and public safety, called the initiative “racist.” 

“The question is who are you stopping from owning a firearm or getting hold of ammunition – in this case it is law-abiding, poor blacks and Hispanics who won’t be able to afford the cost of ammunition, which will rise with the cost associated with required background checks for ammunition purchases.” . . . 

Lott said many of the claims by Newsom and the Safety for All ballot initiative website are inaccurate, something that also drew the attention of Politifact, the independent fact-checking organization that won a Pulitzer Prize for calling out politicians' false claims. 

“Politifact called Newsom's rhetoric "mostly false” and said he used “pseudo data” that is “out of context and is done in a way which is calculated to cause confusion,” Hanisee said. . . .

On National Public Radio: Trying to discuss the problems with the Gun Violence Archive

National Public Radio did a report on Mark Bryant's Gun Violence Archive, where he collects cases of gun deaths and crimes.  But there is a reason we should rely on FBI and CDC data before we rely on what Bryant has put together.  You simply can’t use media reports to determine what happened in cases.  The FBI and CDC also has national standards that allow you to make sure that you are putting together similar cases.

 

The discussion on this show of defensive gun uses is not very useful.  NPR had Bryant make his point first, a partial discussion by John Lott, and then Bryant's response.  Lott's point wasn't that all these cases aren’t reported to anyone.  Some aren’t, but what Lott had argued during the part of the interview that was edited out was two fold:

1) Media reports rarely cover cases where people use guns defensively.  If someone uses a gun defensively and the criminal runs away (as occurs in virtually all defensive gun uses), that is simply not going to be considered newsworthy even if it is reported to the newspaper.  If you believe media accounts actually get virtually all the defensive gun uses, you would have to believe that about 85% of the defensive gun uses end in the criminal being killed.  No one believes that.  It is just that those cases are more newsworthy than cases where the criminal is wounded.  Only a few percent of the cases seem to involve cases where no one is harmed. 

2) There is no standard reporting for police even when they are told about DGUs.  There are no reporting forms for police.  Police do not report these cases to the FBI.  Justifiable homicides are in theory reported by the police to the FBI, but that data for civilians is even worse than it is for the police, and I suspect you have heard how horribly bad the police data is.

Bryant was inaccurate when he claimed that Lott said that concealed handgun laws in Chicago were responsible for the drop in violent crime after the law being in effect for just a month.  In fact, after the law had been in effect for a year-and-a-half Lott said "it is very doubtful that permitted concealed could have a significant impact on crime rates."