John R. Lott, Jr. is a Senior Research Scholar at the University of Maryland. Lott has held positions at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Stanford, UCLA, Wharton, and Rice and was the chief economist at the United States Sentencing Commission during 1988 and 1989. Lott has published over 90 articles in academic journals. He is the author of Freedomnomics, The Bias Against Guns, More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, and Are Predatory Commitments Credible?: Who Should the Courts Believe? Opinion pieces by Lott have appeared in such places as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and The Chicago Tribune. He has appeared on such television programs as the ABC and NBC national evening news broadcasts, The “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” and the “Today Show.” He received his Ph.D. in economics from UCLA in 1984. His website is johnrlott.blogspot.com.
John Lott
USA’s ‘Royal Pains’ Commits Economics Malpractice
by John Lott
USA’s new series “Royal Pains” is about Dr. Hank Lawson (Mark Feuerstein), who serves as a “concierge doctor” to the rich and semi-famous residents of the Hamptons. In the course of the show, there are some unfortunate public policy claims made. In the second episode, entitled “There will be food,” Dr. Hank is trying to provide health care to a not particularly well-to-do fisherman. Hank gives a short lecture on price gouging and hospitals “screwing” people. A heavily discussed theme in this episode involves the need for a free clinic for the regular people who make the Hamptons run and the selfishness of the person who would have been the biggest donor to the clinic who is instead spent his money on a retirement party for a ballerina. In any case, the dialogue for this segment that I would like to focus on is as follows: (more…)
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Television’s Lame Attack on Guns
by John LottWhen script writers run out of something else to say (e.g., there are only so many times they can say everyone is uninsured and miserable about it), guns and gun makers are easily available to demonize. “Life” and “House” have both gone after guns in recent episodes.
Life’s episode “Initiative 38″ has a fairly unbelievable plot: a woman working on an initiative to ban handguns is murdered and there is one major suspect, P&K, a gun company. Here is some of the dialogue:
Detective Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis): We are saying that someone came here to kill your wife. Can you think of who that might be?
Harold Amis: Yes, I can. Initiative 38.
Woman who works for Initiative 38: Initiative 38 is a comprehensive ban on handguns. Lisa was working to get it passed. (more…)
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‘Chuck’ Teaches Us Not To Leave Our Gun At Home
by John Lott
The TV series “Chuck” this last week had some dialogue on the benefits of carrying one’s gun with them (Chuck Versus the Predator). Chuck (Zachary Levi) formulated a mission at the Buy More electronic store and insisted the team — Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) and Casey (Adam Baldwin) — not carry guns. Chuck then gets captured by a Fulcrum Agent… (more…)
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Crime Shows Ignore Real Crime
by John LottThe US Department of Justice released a very important report in January, but it got little attention. The report found that 80 percent of crime in the US was gang related and that the vast majority of that was drug related.
Those of us who have worked with crime data have long understood this problem. For example, 50 percent of counties in the US have zero murders in any given year and another 25 percent have just one murder. Over 70 percent of murders take place in just a little over 3 percent of the counties, but even that exaggerates the picture because anyone who has seen a picture of murders in a major city know how heavily concentrated they are in specific areas within the city. (more…)
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TV Warnings About Victim Disarmament Zones
by John LottThe season finale of “Burn Notice,” entitled “Lesser Evil,” involves Michael Weston (Jeffrey Donovan) trying to keep both himself and Madeline Weston, his mom (Sharon Gless), safe from some angry spies. Madeline and Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell) are surrounded by those bad spies and Madeline makes what to many may seem like an obvious suggestion.
Madeline Weston: Should I call the police?
Sam Axe: No, that would make it way too easy for them. Cops take us to the station — they know where we are and they know that we are unarmed.
The segment reminded me of an even even more politically incorrect show: “The Rifleman.” The episode entitled “The Anvil Chorus” aired on December 17, 1962, and is summarized this way: (more…)
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Aren’t Late Night Comics Looking For Obama Material?
by John LottCould you imagine if Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush had used a teleprompter to answer questions during a press conference? The late night joke writers wouldn’t have let it go until the President gave in to the merciless ridicule as he was painted as an idiot who couldn’t tie his shoes without being fed instructions on how to do it.
While people who watched Obama’s first national press conference noticed his use of a teleprompter to give his initial presentation as well as in answering questions, the media and late night joke writers completely ignored it. The American Spectator notes that in many events: (more…)
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And If This Were Gerald Ford or George W. Bush?
by John LottThese pictures were obtained here. If Gerald Ford had hit is head, I somehow suspect comedians would have had a field day with it. When Ford slipped on some wet steps while deplaning Air Force One, that single incident was fodder for political comedians such as Chevy Chase for years. If George W. Bush had hit his head, I suspect that the same thing would have occurred. Remember Bush passing out because he choked on a pretzel in January 2002? There were a huge number of political jokes about it.
It will be an interesting academic exercise to see how many late night jokes there will be regarding Obama hitting his head while leaving Marine One. Obama is essentially the same height as George H.W. Bush (6′ 1″ to 6′ 2″) and Ronald Reagan (6′ 1″). (more…)
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Why Does Ashley Judd Want Wolves To Suffer Cruel Deaths?
by John LottShooting animals is so “brutal,” especially if they are shot from the air, right? Slamming Sarah Palin for “casting aside science” and “championing the slaughter of wildlife,” one would think that Ashley Judd’s stance in a new ad on hunting is beyond reproach. After all, Judd certainly cares more about animals, right?
Yet, sometimes the emotional response isn’t the most responsible one. In this case, hunting is done to keep animals from dying from starvation and to maintain higher quality populations. The problem is that in the wild, animal populations go through what are called “boom and crash” cycles – animal populations expand to consume the available food supplies and when those are exhausted, the animals starve and the populations crash. Starvation also makes the animals more susceptible to disease. Hunters stabilize populations, and keep those problems from recurring.
Ironically, the hunters and Sarah Palin seem to know a lot more of what is in the wolves’ and their preys’ interests than the wolves’ supposed defenders. Shooting might not be perfect (despite the ad’s exaggerations, the wolf might not die instantly), but stabilizing the wolves’ population through shooting some animals is probably a less painful way for an animal to die than through starvation. In addition, starvation would have impacted virtually all the wolves, but only a fraction of the animals risk suffering any trauma from being shot. (more…)
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Guns in Boston with ‘Boston Legal’
by John LottGuns have figured frequently in “Boston Legal,” with Denny Crane (William Shatner) using them defensively from time to time. Recently, in episode 3 of season 5 (”Dances with Wolves“), Denny fired a gun to defend himself from a robber who also had a gun. The robber was not really threatening, and as Denny’s friend and fellow partner Alan Shore (James Spader) asked him: ”Did you absolutely have to shoot [the robber]? Three times? In both feet?” Obviously the answer to all three questions was, “No.”
I don’t mind the humor in these shows. In fact, I laugh along with everyone else, but it would be interesting if those on the anti-gun side of this television firm (which is everyone else) would have similar fun poked at their own gun control views. Is it just not possible to think of similar jokes? (more…)
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Guns on TV: Missing The Mark
by John LottThe Fox network’s “House M.D.” has never been very friendly towards guns. The last show of season 2 found House shot by a disgruntled former patient. In the ninth episode of season 5, someone demands medical treatment at the point of a gun. The just aired twelfth episode entitled “Painless” brings up guns again, though in a less dramatic and more subtle way with a character named Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) going through the adoption process. When the child welfare official comes to check on Cuddy’s suitability to care for the young child, the first question the official asks is, “Any guns in the house?” The only other question was whether she had any pets.
Obviously the academic research shows that having an accessible gun in the home saves lives, but I had a more basic question: I decided to check to see if a question about guns was likely to lead the questions on one’s fitness to serve as a foster parent or to adopt a child. American Adoptions is licensed by the state of New Jersey to provide home study services for people preparing for adoption. Their home study guide has a lot of questions on a person’s criminal record (arrests and convictions), whether they have ever been reported for child abuse/neglect (seems more important than gun ownership), and marital status and history – but no questions about gun ownership. (more…)
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“I heard her scream . . . I decided to help the lady”: Concealed carry permit holder comes to aid of woman being beaten and robbed
by John LottLocal television coverage of a defensive gun use. A news story video of the man who came to this woman’s aid can be seen here. The criminal was apparently savagely beating the woman over the head with a beer bottle. Because of the news worthiness angle, these types of defensive gun use stories usually only get news coverage when the criminal is killed.
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Gun Locks Are A Problem … Even For Monk
by John Lott
Well, even though Adrian Monk couldn’t get the gun out of the gun safe at least the safe itself could be used as a weapon. This is one of the very few TV shows that have made fun of gun locks. Monk’s line, “Don’t move there is a gun in here.” is classic. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that, unlike most of the biased media coverage on guns, this humor gets across the research that gun locks actually make it significantly more difficult for people to defend themselves against criminals.
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