John Lott must have gotten upset when he read Dennis Henigan’s latest attack on him and his work, because he’s firing back today on Breitbart’s Big Government, pointing out that they are, surprise, distorting the record.
By the way, gun control folks, I think you lost the moral high ground on the whole Mary Rosh thing.
John Lott is tainted by Mary Rosh. We must remember that, since everyone is going to remind us anyway. Just because Josh Horwitz is also tainted, that doesn’t un-taint Lott. I think it’s damaging to rely on John Lott as a source, because he’s too easy to attack and his credibility is forever questionable. Pretending this isn’t true doesn’t change things, and also doesn’t help our cause. In other words, if the best someone can to is cite John Lott, they’re f’d.
On the other hand, our arguments don’t just rest on John Lott: there are other studies (at least half a dozen) that back us up.
And Jeff Snyder made a good point in several of his essays (found in his book “Nation of Cowards”) that rights exist independent of statistics; and even if there were a hundred-thousand people who used guns for murder and zero used guns for self defense, we would *still* have the right to carry guns for self defense, because it is a natural, God-given right!