Evidence on how badly informed people are about guns and how that leads to support for gun control, Media bias after the Buffalo shooting, we were the statistical expert in a 9th Circuit win, Report on Concealed handguns saving police, and much more

People are poorly informed about the most basic facts in the gun control debate. The CPRC has funded a survey that finds the average, likely American voter mistakenly thinks that over 46% of violent crimes involve guns. The true figure is less than 8%. That isn't too surprising given that President Biden, public health researchers, and the media, violent crime is all about guns. Not surprisingly, those who believe that most violent crime involves guns are more likely to view gun control as the solution.

Media bias after the mass public shooting in Buffalo continued. I have a piece at Townhall about how the news media falsely claims that mass public shooters are "right-wingers" when they are environmental extremists. The false claims were made not just at the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and NPR, but also Fox News. I discussed this on Larry Elder's TV Show and Andrew Branca's Law of Self Defense podcast. I think that both went well, and I have gotten a lot of positive feedback from my conversation with Andrew. By the way, the media also ignore the murderer explaining why he did the attack where he did: he wanted to pick a target where the victims weren't able to protect themselves. Gun control groups pointed out that there was an armed guard there, but over the years, I have kept pointing out that uniformed armed guards have an extremely difficult job stopping mass public shootings. The murderer had cased the store before the attack, and if a murderer believes that the uniformed armed guard is the only person with a gun, who do you think the murderer will attack first? The attacker has huge strategic advantages, and he can easily identify the uniformed guard who has a gun. The benefit of concealed handguns is that it takes away the advantage of these attackers.

There is some good news. We won a case before a three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit on whether California could ban gun ownership for 18 to 20 years, where I served as the statistical expert. Two of the three judges were Trump appointees. Typically Democrats appeal to the entire Circuit where Democrats hold a majority, and time after time, the en banc decisions reverse these initial wins. But that might not happen this time because there is a good chance the US Supreme Court will shortly release its decision on New York's concealed handgun law which would set clear guidelines for how the lower courts must evaluate future gun cases.

We have a new report on cases where people who were legally carrying concealed handguns have saved police officers. We also have a response to an attack by the Associated Press on our research dealing with crime by illegal aliens. And I moderated a Republican congressional debate for Montana's new congressional district. I also have an op-ed based on my academic research on how Roe v. Wade dramatically increased single-parent families.

Media bias on entertainment television is going full blast. CBS has a couple of shows demonizing Bushmaster 223s with completely misleading claims and blaming the United States for Mexico's gun crime problem. There is much more below.

For information on activities at the Crime Prevention Research Center, here is a link to our “info deck.” Please view in full-screen mode and scroll using the arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen.

But we need help getting this message out. If you have any friends who you think might find our emails of interest, please encourage them to sign up by sending them the link here.

Thank you very much for all your support. We have some tough battles ahead, and I just want you to know how much your support has been greatly appreciated.