John Lott, author of “More Guns, Less Crime,” spoke at the recent AIM 30th anniversary conference and delivered a devastating rebuttal to the anti-gun propaganda emanating from the White House and the media. He said he was concerned about the fact that “a lot of what we think we know isn?t true” and that various myths about guns may be endangering lives.

In 1997, he said there were about 440,000 violent crimes and 9,000 murders committed with guns. By contrast, there were over 2 million violent crimes prevented through the use of guns. The media, Lott said, focus on the former category because it produces an actual victim or a dead body. The latter usually produces no rapist or murderer or actual crime. He said the media?s emphasis on the bad things that happen with guns causes the public to think that guns are more of a problem than a solution. After the Atlanta day-trader attack in the summer, which was widely publicized by the media, Lott said there were three incidents in Atlanta within ten days where citizens used guns to stop similar attacks. “Those get very little attention,” he pointed out.

Lott cited a number of media myths, including the notion that passive behavior in the face of a criminal attack is the best course of action. In fact, a careful look at the government statistics shows that some forms of active resistance, such as the use of a gun in self-defense, are preferable. Another myth about guns is that friends or relatives can easily pick up a gun and kill someone. This is based on figures showing that acquaintances carry out many murders. But the term “acquaintances” refers in most cases to rival gang members who know each other, rival drug dealers, prostitutes and their clients or pimps, and taxi cab drivers and their passengers.

Lott said murderers usually have a criminal record and most are young males. Indicating that most murders are committed in urban centers, Lott said 80 percent of the counties in the U.S. have zero murders in any given year. Yet the notion that anyone is a potential killer is pushed in order to scare people about other people, and this furthers the gun control agenda. He said, “Then you?ll be afraid to trust them with guns or other types of weapons because you?ll be afraid they?ll be used against you.”

Another myth—that America has a high murder rate because Americans own so many guns—also crumbles under scrutiny. Lott said that while the overall international data are inconclusive, the facts show that states in the U.S. with the highest gun ownership rate have the lowest violent crime rate. More significantly, states with the biggest increases in gun ownership have had the biggest relative drops in violent crime.

Another misleading claim is that 13 children a day die from guns. But these “children” can be up to 19 years of age. Nine of those 13 deaths a day involve 17,18, or 19 year-olds—primarily gang members fighting each other. But pictures of innocent 7 or 8 year-old victims are typically shown.

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