If you aren’t familiar with Dr. John Lott, you need to be. He is without a doubt the leading academic mind on the planet when it comes to studying positive outcomes of firearm ownership.
He also consistently debunks the worst of liberal narratives. His expertise and hard work have been cited on countless publications and broadcasts — even liberal outlets like the Washington Post have used his quotes and research.
We highly recommend you follow his work and learn the truth about a number of gun-control arguments. As an introduction, we’re going to cover his latest work involving the Black Lives Matter Narrative.
By the Numbers
The study is dense and expansive. It looks at police killings from virtually every angle. As a result, a few numbers really pop. The first we noticed is a rise in killings of police officers. Since 2015, felonious killings of police soared across the country by about 61 percent.
To make a connection, Black Lives Matters began their large efforts in 2014. Now, this does not mean that BLM is fully responsible for the deaths of police. But it does show how dangerous narratives can embolden criminals. Such was clearly the case when the Dallas killings happened in 2016.
A few other numbers also pop. The first is that this study has roughly twice as much data as any comparable effort. That makes it a lot more reliable. One such number is that the number of civilians killed by police is up sharply since 2014. This contradicts claims by the FBI. It’s also worth noting that almost 100 percent of that increase has been from deaths of white suspects.
Conversely, the rate of black deaths at the hands of police only rose by 0.2 percent. Hispanic deaths were similarly unchanged. The white death rate grew by 60 percent. That already throws a huge wrench in BLM’s claims.
The One Thing the Left Got Correct
On the right, we believe in logic and reasoning. As such, we have to acknowledge when the left is correct about something. In this case, it has to do with proportional population statistics. That’s a mouthful, but basically the left and BLM claim that compared to the ratio of blacks in the population, they make up a disproportionately large number of the people shot by police.
This is true and has been for as long as records have been kept. Numerically, black Americans make up 12 percent of the total population. They account for 24 percent of those killed by police. That’s the premise of the BLM argument. Where they go wrong is in assuming that these numbers can only be produced by deliberate, malicious, systemic racism.
Debunking Claims of Racism
Now, racism is a plausible cause of disproportionate black deaths if you only look at those two numbers. When you dig deeply like this study did, you find that racism can’t possibly be the reason.
The first approach to understanding this comes from looking at how police behave differently according to their own race. If civilian killings were racially motivated, you would assume that white officers are less likely to kill white people, black officers are less likely to kill black civilians and so on. This simply isn’t the case. No matter how the study split groups by race, it found that civilian shooting statistics were the same.
In reality, the primary cause of racial disparity in police killings comes from crime rates. To put it simply, you’re going to see a stronger police presence in areas with the highest crimes. As everyone in the country already knows, black Americans disproportionately live in high-crime areas. That means they are interacting with police more than other groups, and those interactions are more likely to involve a response to a crime.
When you control for these factors, you find that the entire difference in blacks shot by police is a result of blacks being around more crime. This is why the black-on-black crime argument is important. If you are more likely to be involved in a violent crime, you are more likely to be involved in a violent police response to that crime.
So, what can we learn from all of this math and analysis?
First, the left is as wrong as they always are. They’re exploiting a dangerous situation for a specific group of Americans in order to tug at heart strings and vie for votes.
Instead, an honest assessment of the situation could actually save lives. It is incumbent on leaders within black communities to push for less black-on-black crime. That’s one of the key ways to de-escalate rising tensions between police and rough neighborhoods, and it would undoubtedly reverse the recent trends we’re seeing.
But, a message of personal accountability is abhorrent to the left, so they could never embrace such a radical idea.
~ American Gun News
Black lives do not matter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John Lott is well-regarded for his data-driven and common sense defense of mature, responsible gun owners. His studies lend validity to what we gun owners already suspect to be true! However, the “John” who commented above that “Black lives do not matter!!!” is an example of the sort of person who gives gun owners a bad rap. Perhaps he was trying to be “cute” by playing off the BLM name, but he comes off sounding like an unthinking racist in the process. Just the sort who shouldn’t be “packing heat”….
All lives do matter. The issue remains that there are many that do things (rob, rape, attack, break in, steal, kidnap, etc) that cause themselves to be confronted by police. In many cases these people face law enforcers that are armed and ready to defend themselves or others as necessary…therefore the bad guys (male or female) are more than likely to be SHOT if the type of violence they force in the situation is what is necessary!
I would like to see Black Live Matter be upset about the Lives of Black Children caught in the Gunfire of the Local Gangs.
I believe that anything said, stated or written by these activists would be taken more seriously and listened to with greater interest if they would condemn their own as well as white society and stop playing the role of the victimized minority that is being hunted down and killed like it was something planned by their oppressors. White people or cops of any ethnicity can’t be blamed for the crimes committed by others. Criminals are not stealing food to feed children, but engaging in serious crimes and often violent crimes for personal gain be it money or revenge or due to mental illness.
The entire Treyvon-Martin case was a perfect example of “he said, she said, they said” followed by “I never said, he never admitted, they were telling lies”, and so on. In other words the prosecution or pro-Treyvon side claimed the other side was never honest and the defense used dirty tricks even when the evidence proved they were correct.
Yet both groups used the same protocols, tactics, methods, whatever you want to call them to achieve results. Obviously, whoever was loosing was not happy at the time.
Now anybody can refute evidence or witness testimony, but then what does one believe and how do we determine the truth if one side gives itself the privilege of crying foul at everything. So one person is declared a monster and the other is a sweet, innocent child by showing photos of him when he was younger and smaller. And showing images of him as an aggressive, tall young adult is dirty pool?
This was another emotionally driven, media circus and even after it was difficult to know what was really true and what was just more rhetoric to convince us that one or the other was a bad guy or who was to blame. Sometimes the “cause” was made more important than the seeking of actual justice or upholding certain principles.
I read an FBI statistic that police are three times more likely to shoot a white male than a black male during arrests.
Black lives matter is a raciest organization
BLM destroys itself. When lies are told like he had his hands up and surrendering is found to be a total lie the chickens come home to roost. Hands up don’t shoot was a lie. Such acts make it obvious those demonstrators do not care about justice for all. They want injustice for all they hate. White people and all law enforcement. Consequently, there would be no surprise if racism were predominant in both races. Which it appears to some degree it is. Mostly in the large cities like Chicago’s south side. Seldom found other places.