Point of View November 5, 2026 – Hour 2 : Defensive Gun Use

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View, Kerby Anderson. Second Amendment Day, we're going to spend some time talking about the Second Amendment and self-defense. Might just mention that those of you that actually are donors to Point of View will receive some of the booklets.

[00:00:29] This one I'm holding up right now, A Biblical Point of View on the Second Amendment is one that came out years ago. And, of course, we spend some time quoting from John Lott in The More Guns, Less Crime, as well as The War on Guns, The Bias Against Guns and Others. We also, of course, have one that we did a Biblical Point of View on Criminal Justice. And more recently, I've done one just a Biblical View on Self-Defense, which not only looks at the issue of crime but all sorts of other kinds of defense and deterrence,

[00:00:56] even quoting from one of the booklets we did on the issue of Just War. So this is an important issue that we need to think about in a very significant way. And especially wanted to have him back on the program because the other day after there was a shooting in Oregon, and this was in Bend, Oregon. And I go to Oregon every year to teach in a school and had just seen that take place.

[00:01:19] The National Public Radio said even though this was a way in which a good guy ended the life of a bad guy with a gun, the civilian ending these kind of attacks is rare. And that's not true, as we've tried to explain before. There are reasons for the reason why that's mentioned. There's what is known as the ALERT, Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, that uses those numbers.

[00:01:48] And so I just thought it would be good, first of all, to have John Lott to speak to that issue, then to address some of the issues which I know are going to surface now with this newly elected Congress. And so let me hold up a copy of my book, John Lott's book, More Guns, Less Crime. And he, of course, is an individual, has his doctorate from UCLA, an individual that has been speaking on all these issues for years, and the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center. So, John Lott, welcome back to Point of View.

[00:02:18] Thanks for having me on. It's great to talk to you again. I quote you a lot even when you're not on, but it's always good to have you on, because there are a few people that sometimes say, what would you say to? And so if we have some time, I want to maybe put a few of those on the table. By the way, I'm opening up the phones, 800-351-1212, if you want to ask some questions. But let's see if we can go to Oregon first. That's the first one that got my attention, and that is in elementary school.

[00:02:45] And this father, again, what a hero who actually was able to end what could have been an even worse mass shooting. But what about this argument that we hear so often in the press that rarely does a good guy with a gun end the shooting of a bad guy with a gun? And there's a problem with that, isn't there? Yeah. Well, look, if you look at all the active shooting attacks in the United States from 2014 through 2025,

[00:03:15] and the FBI defines an active shooting as a gun fired in public, not part of some other type of crime like a robbery or a gang fight over drug turf. And you'll find that over those 12 years, about 37% of the attacks were stopped by civilians who legally owned guns, were legally carrying guns.

[00:03:41] And if you separate out places where they were banned from having guns because you can't expect law-abiding citizens to stop attacks in places where it's illegal for them to have a gun, you, in fact, find that over half of the active shooting attacks were stopped by legally armed civilians.

[00:04:00] And the thing is, when you look at this, what you find is, in fact, civilians stop more of these attacks than police do. And people don't appreciate what incredibly difficult job an officer who's in uniform has. If you have somebody in uniform in an area and somebody's thinking of attacking there, the attacker has real tactical advantages.

[00:04:27] They can either wait for the officer to leave the area before they attack, or they can move on to another target themselves. Both of those make it less likely that an officer will be present when an attack occurs. Or if they're going to attack there and they know that the officer is the only person with a gun, who do you think they shoot first? Yes.

[00:04:50] And what we find is that while civilians stop about 37% of these attacks, police officers stop only about 29%. And not only that, but their police officers, even though they stop fewer attacks, are 12 times more likely to be killed in those attacks than civilians are. Because, you know, having somebody in uniform is like having a neon sign above them if they shoot me first. Yes.

[00:05:20] Let me, if I can, to come back to that idea of a gun-free zone, too. Because I know a little bit about Oregon politics, about the governor who before was a legislator and wanted to have all these gun-free zones. And Oregon is a good example because I've said, and maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so, if this father who had a gun in a so-called gun-free zone had been caught with a gun, and the governor, I'm sure, would have prosecuted him to the full extent of the law.

[00:05:47] And yet, again, since schools are oftentimes gun-free zones, of course, you don't expect as many people to stop attacks there because they wouldn't be carrying a gun. He, in some respects, violated that, but that's how he was able to save lives. Is that fair? Yeah, no, that's exactly right.

[00:06:04] Look, up until 2021, anybody with a concealed carry permit, including teachers, were allowed to go and carry guns on school property in Oregon. In 2021, the legislature passed a new law that allowed school districts in the state to be able to ban the carrying of permitted concealed handguns on school property.

[00:06:29] And of the 176 school districts in the state, 25 of them, including the one in Bend, Oregon, where the attack that you're talking about occurred, passed those types of rules. Fortunately, in this case, the father was driving by the school on his way home for lunch when he saw the shooter there.

[00:06:59] The doors of the school had been locked, but the shooter basically shot out the windows of the doors in order to go through and get into the school. The father, you know, even though he got there well before the police arrived, it still wasn't fast enough to save everybody's lives there.

[00:07:22] But the attacker still had something like 45 rounds of ammunition on him for his shotgun when he was fatally shot by the concealed carry permit holder. Well, let me take a break because I want to come back and get into some other aspects of this question because many times people say, well, what would John Lott say about? And so we'll do that. But I thought it was very interesting. You did point out that one of the things to pay attention to is what's called ALERT.

[00:07:52] That stands for Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training. That's why they call it ALERT. But interestingly enough, you found an interesting inconsistency where they included an attack where somebody returned with a gun after getting kicked out of a bar. But it excluded similar attacks with an armed citizen that stopped it. And so in some respects, these particular databases aren't full. And, of course, there's a very good case.

[00:08:19] I watched the video where John Stossel even asked the FBI how complete the data was. And, of course, they didn't want to answer. So the point I'm making is be discerning. And this first article, which we have posted on the website, you can find it in National Review. But we have it right here. Yes, armed citizens can and do stop mass shootings. We're going to come back and get into a few other aspects of the Second Amendment and of self-defense right after this.

[00:09:00] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Although the election is in the rearview mirror, it is worth asking a question from this election that will affect the next election. Who should draw the lines for Congress? Supreme Court justices have differing opinions. Editors of the Wall Street Journal begin with these two sentences. Charles de Gaulle once said that he always had a certain idea of France.

[00:09:26] Now we learn that from her prominent perch as a Supreme Court justice, Elena Kagan has a certain idea of democracy. Her recent comments were about partisan gerrymanders. She disagrees with the majority that decided to take federal courts out of the business of policing state legislatures that draw congressional boundaries. She would like to put judges in charge of drawing maps. She is correct that these partisan gerrymandered districts do reduce the number of competitive elections. It is also true that they drive voters to the extreme.

[00:09:55] But I'm not convinced that unelected federal judges will do a better job than state legislators who are accountable to the people. As I've mentioned in previous commentaries, the idea of so-called independent commissions drawing lines isn't any better. In California and New York, we saw that these two independent commissions eliminated several Republican seats. And the solution isn't always to create a majority-minority district.

[00:10:19] Justice Clarence Thomas wrote many years ago that putting a significant percentage of minority voters isn't the solution. He argued that making both parties compete for minority votes is healthier for democracy. We may not like how the system works now, but at least it provides a remedy through electing or defeating state legislators who gerrymandered districts. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my Point of View.

[00:10:49] Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net. That's pointofview.net. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Back once again, talking with John Lott. And if you'd like to know more about the Crime Prevention Research Center, we have a link to that on the website. I would encourage you to go there and find some of the information.

[00:11:15] As you go to our website, pointofview.net, I just, out of interest, typed in John Lott and tried to see how many commentaries I've quoted from him. And, of course, you've got good guys with guns, rising crime, gun misinformation. But also, over the years, we've talked about AI bias, close votes, and a variety of others because you've done a very good statistical analysis of many of the issues we talk about here on Point of View. But let's come back to this idea of a gun-free zone.

[00:11:42] This newly elected politician in Colorado wants to expand the number of gun-free zones. They've already sort of talked about that in Oregon and California and elsewhere. And yet, we've had conversations with you before, Dr. Lott, about the fact that the criminals are intelligent.

[00:11:59] You've given story after story of individuals that will bypass one particular movie theater where they know that concealed carry is allowed so they can find their way to a theater or a school where there isn't concealed carry. And I think that's the thing that people miss. Because criminals, people that intend harm, are not motivated by whether or not it's a gun-free zone.

[00:12:24] As a matter of fact, they see that as a very significant opportunity to bring about the greatest amount of havoc possible. Is that fair? Yeah, no, that's exactly accurate. Look, as you say, these guys may be crazy in some sense, but they're not stupid. Their goal is to kill as many people as possible, mainly because they usually want to get publicity, and they know the more people they kill, the more media attention that they're going to get.

[00:12:52] And they know if they go to a place where their victims are defenseless, they're going to be able to go and kill more people and get more media attention. And time after time, they explicitly explain why they pick the targets in their diaries and manifestos.

[00:13:09] One of the biggest pet peeves I have with the media is that, and just an example of bias, is that the media many times will go and say, you know, this mass murderer had a discussion in their diary or manifesto about other mass murderers, and that's true. But what they leave out is they are learning from these other mass murderers where to go and attack.

[00:13:38] And yet, you know, I would think it's newsworthy if a person explains why they pick the targets that they do. But you will search in vain to ever see any discussion in the media about why they pick the targets that they do. They just refuse to cover those parts of their diaries and manifestos. And so, you know, we start off this discussion today with kind of the media bias after the Oregon shooting.

[00:14:06] You know, when you do get some coverage, and it's usually rare, when you get coverage of a civilian stopping these attacks, you know, we have on our website, in like the last five years, we have almost 60 cases where police have said legally armed civilians have stopped what otherwise would have been a mass public shooting.

[00:14:30] And yet there's only a few of them that get news coverage, and when they do, the media will go and have it as you described it to say, well, how rare these are. And unfortunately, this isn't the only type of bias. I'll just give you one example that I think had some impact on the election that we just had this week, and that is a little bit over a week ago. The Bureau of Justice Statistics just came out with its crime data. Yes.

[00:15:00] For 2025. And we had record, historically record drops in crime rates in 2025. We had a 25% drop in felony violent crime. We had a 19% drop in property crime that had occurred. And murder rates were at the lowest level ever in 2025, 4.1 per 100,000.

[00:15:28] You know, by contrast, during the last year of the Biden administration, it was 5.1 per 100,000. And this year, for the first seven months of this year, they're recording over another 18% drop. So it's like 3.35 per 100,000.

[00:15:45] We've never had murder rates anywhere near that low in this country, let alone these historic drops in violent crimes during 2025 and the continued drops this year. And yet the Associated Press didn't cover it. The New York Times, the Washington Post didn't cover those record drops in crime, ABC, NBC, NPR, you know, CNN.

[00:16:12] And even Fox didn't cover those historic drops. I might just point out, too, I'm holding up our booklet that I did in March, and it's on borders and deportation. Because we, of course, quoted you then to point out the fact that if you're deporting violent criminals, then crime's going to go down. But even if you don't catch all of those, there's the deterrent factor of those individuals that start seeing some of the violent criminals getting on a plane and going to another country.

[00:16:41] They're going to kind of keep their head down. And I think that's a very significant reason for the drop in crime rate, don't you think? Oh, I couldn't agree more. I mean, look, the illegals that are committing crime, you know, they don't want to get deported. The ones that haven't gotten caught yet, as you say, how do they keep from getting deported? Well, they have to keep off of police radar.

[00:17:04] What's the easiest way to stay off of police radar and ensure that they're not going to be picked up and taken to the local county courthouse where they're reigned and ICE can be there to go and pick them up and deport them? And that is to stop committing crime right now, and they'll help keep you off of police radar.

[00:17:23] So, you know, there's some data that came out from New York State at the end of last year indicating that 14 percent of those who are incarcerated in New York State were illegal aliens. And that's clearly an underestimate because, one, New York State did not cooperate with ICE in identifying those individuals.

[00:17:48] Second, many illegal aliens who are criminals never make it into the incarcerated population because when they're arrested, ICE can pick them up right when they've been arrested, even before they've been convicted. And the third reason is that people tend to commit crimes against individuals who are similar to themselves. You know, 90 percent of blacks are murdered by other blacks. Eighty-five percent of Hispanics are murdered by other Hispanics.

[00:18:18] Illegal aliens tend to disproportionately commit crimes against other illegal aliens. And those illegal aliens who are crime victims are less likely to go and report crimes. But the point is, is that if you compare that 14 percent to the share of illegals in the general population, about the highest estimate is they make about 4 percent of the general population, but 14 percent of those who are incarcerated.

[00:18:47] So that's a minimum of three and a half times more than their share of the population. So they're vastly disproportionately committing crimes. Again, some of the facts and figures that we want to point you to. We're going to take a break. And let me, when I come back, I encourage you, first of all, during the break, to go to crimeresearch.org. That's the link that we have there as well. We have posted this piece on armed citizens, what they can do and have been able to do in the past in terms of stopping mass shootings,

[00:19:16] and maybe just have some discernment about some of the data that is used by the Associated Press from the Alert Center and the rest. But I thought when we come back, we might also get into a couple of other issues that I'm sure are going to surface in the campaigns and now in the policies. One is that America is much more violent than other countries. But if you look at a percentage basis or per 1,000, that's a different issue.

[00:19:42] You also, of course, hear about the so-called gun show loophole and what that might mean as well. And in particular, some of the things that we've written about in the past just help you to understand a little bit of what is written about in his book that came out years ago, The Bias Against Guns and the understanding of what is going to be necessary. And, of course, I will hold up my booklet on self-defense because a lot of people say, well, how do I think about this from a biblical point of view?

[00:20:10] There are different aspects of that. But I think it relates not only to what happens in this country in terms of crime and the need for self-defense, but also relates very much to one of the booklets I've done on the subject of just war because deterrence is important. And I think it illustrates very well this booklet I just held up a minute ago on borders and deportation. If you are committing a violent crime in another country and you come here illegally and you're committing violent crimes here,

[00:20:39] obviously if we get you off the street, you're not going to commit those crimes. But all sorts of other individuals who might have been involved in those crimes or might have been one of the co-conspirators with you are going to maybe keep their head down. And that's, again, a great illustration of some of the misinformation that is out there. And we want you to have as much discernment as possible. So, again, go to the website. It is crimeresearch.org. It stands for the Crime Research Center.

[00:21:09] A lot of great material. You might even want to go and find some of the articles, which I quote with some regularity from John Lott, because this issue of Second Amendment self-defense, very important. And that's why we cover it today. And we'll continue to cover it here on Point of View. We have more to cover. We'll do that right after this. Who can you trust?

[00:21:36] Years ago, many of us could probably have provided a fairly long list. But today, well, today, it seems we almost can't trust anyone. Educators don't even know what a woman is anymore. Many so-called public servants have shown all they care about is themselves. The FBI has been accused of bias, law-breaking, betrayal, and journalism. It's largely corrupt, with no Clark Kent standing up for truth, justice, and the American way.

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[00:23:04] The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station. And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson. Back once again with Dr. John Lott. And again, I've mentioned his book and held it up. More guns, less crime. Let me hold up this one. Freedonomics. Again, why the free market works and other half-based theories don't.

[00:23:27] And that's going to be a very important book, which was written almost 20 years ago now, that addressed some of these issues of socialism and the rest. So I want you to know that John Lott is writing on a variety of different issues. Of course, John, one of the things that I first learned from you was how much bias is in artificial intelligence, because you went through that. And I did a whole commentary on it. And we've talked with you about this. But there are just a lot of issues you are addressing.

[00:23:53] But let me come back to the ones that I just mentioned a minute ago, because we're going to hear more and more over the next couple of months, especially from those who want to implement more gun control laws, that we're the most violent country. We have more murders than any country in the world. But I think you have to look at population, don't you? And that's one of those myths that you talk about in one of your books. Right.

[00:24:18] Look, you know, just on the violent crime issue first, you know, a lot of people, what they look at is crimes reported to police when they're making comparisons across countries. The problem is, is that the rate that crimes are reported to police vary dramatically across countries.

[00:24:38] So, for example, if you compare Australia versus the United States, in the United States, about 45 percent of rapes and sexual assaults are reported to police. In Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics claims it's 19 percent. I think it's actually about 9 percent. But even if you take their numbers, even if the true rape and sexual assault rates were the same in both the United States and Australia,

[00:25:06] it would make it look like the rate in the United States was more than two times higher, simply because we have such a much higher rate of reporting those crimes to police. But what happens is that if you look at these large national surveys that are done, the United States is the National Crime Victimization Survey, which surveys about 240,000 people a year in order to try to get a measure of both reported and unreported crime.

[00:25:35] Australia, Canada has their own measures. But in Australia, the actual rape and sexual assault rate is like three times higher than in the United States. Overall violent crime is well more than twice as high in Australia as it is in the United States. In Canada, the overall violent crime rate is about 295 percent higher than the rates in the United States.

[00:26:03] You know, the other thing is, I mean, if you take the most recent murder data, you know, for this year so far, we're, as I mentioned before, we're about 3.35 per 100,000, and that is higher than many other countries. You look at Canada and Australia, it's about 2 per 100,000.

[00:26:28] But it's really a bit of a misnomer to talk about a U.S. murder rate, because unlike other countries, the murder rate in the United States is extremely heavily concentrated in tiny areas. Right. About 53 percent of murders in the United States take place in 2 percent of the counties.

[00:26:49] And if you ever look at a murder map, what you find is about two-thirds of their murders take place within 10 block areas. Right. But even within tiny areas within that 2 percent of the counties that you see, and firearm murders are even more concentrated. 57 percent of firearm murders occur within 2 percent of the counties.

[00:27:21] And the thing is, if you look at those counties, they're very heavily Democratic counties. You know, the type of law enforcement decisions that you have, the judges, the district attorneys that get elected, all those are local decisions that are there. And so, you know, if you have areas where people don't think you need to punish criminals very heavily,

[00:27:47] you know, it's not too shocking that you have higher violent crime rates in those areas. Let me, if I can, for just a minute, point people to some things. First of all, next to your picture, of course, we have a link to your website. We also have a link to your X account. And on November 2nd, which just a few days ago, you posted again that map. And it shows 2 percent of U.S. counties account for 53 percent of all the murders.

[00:28:13] And then you have that plotted out on a map of the United States. And you will be shocked because when you see just all this gray and then a few little dots of red, it illustrates that. And I would have to tell you, John, the times that I sometimes have been speaking and quote that statistic that 2 percent, more than half of murders take place in 2 percent of all the counties in America, they go, there's no way that's right. And I think it's a good place for people to go.

[00:28:43] Of course, they can go to the Crime Prevention Research Center. But right now, if you just scroll down to about, I guess it's like the second or third article that you've posted on X, they can see the map for themselves. And maybe I'll post that again in a future commentary because it's just a good illustration of how we just are huled that this is a violent time. Crime is on the increase. No, it's not. Crime is everywhere. No, it's not.

[00:29:09] And there are very good reasons why certain areas of the country have these high crime rates. And you have identified those only so well. Let me, if I can, for just a minute before we run out of time, get to another one we're going to hear about. And that is the so-called gun show loophole because there are some very significant attempts right now to kind of move forward this idea of gun control.

[00:29:35] And that one sounds like, yeah, if there's a loophole here and people aren't going through a background check and selling a gun at a gun show, well, that's maybe something we should use. But can you, again, help us understand the data behind that? Right. So, I mean, there are a lot of issues I want to get into on this, but just on the gun show or just on background checks generally.

[00:30:01] Look, everybody wants to try to stop bad people from being able to go and get guns. The problem is, is the current background check system that we have is a complete mess. And false positives, isn't that what we're talking about? Where people are actually, yeah, go ahead.

[00:30:16] And, you know, so since the federal background check system has been in effect, there have been something like 5.4 million people that have been stopped from being able to go and buy a gun because of a background check. And something over 99% of those are mistakes. It's one thing to stop a felon from buying a gun.

[00:30:39] And it's another thing to stop somebody simply because they have a roughly phonetically similar name and similar birthday to a felon. And there's no reason why they should be making these mistakes. But, like, you may see 200,000 denials in a year, and maybe they prosecute 24 of them, and maybe they get a dozen convictions.

[00:31:01] If somebody illegally tries to buy a gun because, you know, they're a felon and they fill out the .4473 and they're essentially attesting under threat of perjury that they have, you know, when they say they don't have a criminal record, when they really do, that prohibits them from being able to go and buy a gun. They have a signature on a form. The person showed their ID. You almost always have it on video that they try to do it.

[00:31:28] But these are the easiest cases in the world to go and prosecute. In fact, in most cases, you wouldn't even really need to even have a trial. You just have a plea bargain for the individual. And yet they don't bring these cases. And the reason is it's because they're basically getting somebody who just has a roughly phonetically similar name and similar birthday.

[00:31:51] And this overwhelmingly discriminates against two groups of people, basically black males and Hispanic males. People tend to have names similar to others in their racial groups. Hispanics have names similar to other Hispanics. Blacks tend to have names similar to other blacks. And about 33% of black males have felony records. About 18% of Hispanic males have felony records. About 6% of whites.

[00:32:20] And about 1.5% of Asians. So where do you expect to have most of the mistakes occurring where a law-abiding Hispanic or black male is denied from being able to go and buy a gun simply because they have a roughly phonetically similar name and birthday to somebody who is prohibited from being able to buy a gun. Easy to fix this.

[00:32:41] But, you know, just on the crime issue, after each mass public shooting, whether it was Biden or whether it was Obama, Obama in particular, it was like the go-to gun control that he wanted to have. You know, just background checks on the private trances of guns, which would include gun shows.

[00:33:02] And yet there's not one mass public shooting this century that would have been stopped if such a law had been in effect. It had been perfectly enforced. And so, you know, I wish once in a while there would be reporters who would go and ask the politicians, say, you're talking about having this gun control law after this recent shooting. Wouldn't it have saved a life. Yeah. Let me take a break.

[00:33:31] We have one of those mandatory breaks. I'll come back and get into that because the other part of that is I think you've now seen that background checks haven't been quite as effective. And some current people have ended up with false positives. But we'll talk about the so-called gun show loophole and a few other issues right after this.

[00:33:57] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Back with us again with Dr. John Lott. And I thought just for a minute we might come back to the point you just made in passing because we broadcast all over the country. But for our listeners, say, in California or Illinois or New York or places like that, which have very restrictive gun control laws, oftentimes there is then a crime that is committed there or a mass shooting.

[00:34:23] And I always ask listeners in those areas if they call in, what change could possibly be making that would make any difference given the fact that you are in a fairly restrictive environment right now? What else could you possibly do? And it brings me back to programs we've done in the past with you about how gun control laws really do not prevent that and why terrorists.

[00:34:49] I found this when I was doing a search on our Point of View website, the one we did years ago, why terrorists choose gun-free zones. So you've just got to sometimes think like a criminal and recognize that they're not going to be deterred by a law that's passed by the state legislature, are they? Well, you know, the problem that you have is that even if a gun control law takes some guns away from criminals,

[00:35:14] if it primarily disarms law-abiding good citizens relative to criminals, you have to make it easier for criminals to go and commit crimes. You know, one of the points I often make is there are a number of countries around the world and places in the United States in the past which have either banned all guns or all handguns. You know, Washington, D.C. and Chicago are two examples of a complete handgun ban.

[00:35:40] And yet, if guns unmet are bad, it should be very easy to point to places where you've had these gun bans and murder rates have gone down or at least stayed the same. And yet, every single time, every time when you've had a gun ban, either murder rates go up, but often by huge amounts, by like three, four, even seven-fold increases.

[00:36:08] And this is true in island nations even where you would think would kind of be the ideal experiment for gun control laws. And so, you know, it's just so often I can understand the motivation for things like gun-free zones or whatever, but unfortunately, many times they actually make it easier for criminals to go and commit crimes rather than making it more difficult for them to do so.

[00:36:37] Let's begin to talk about the fact that half of the states, about 25, have constitutional carry. And the argument, John Lott, that they used to make against concealed carry or constitutional carry was you're going to have more battles. You know, there's going to be an argument, there's going to be road rage, and there's going to be all sorts of shootouts. But we have decades now of evidence to show that that really doesn't take place,

[00:37:03] yet I still hear those rhetoric and some of those talking points surfaced from time to time, don't you? Yeah. Look, I mean, there are about 21, almost about 21 million Americans in the United States that have a concealed carry permit. You have 29 constitutional carry states where it's no longer necessary to even have a permit to be able to go and carry. And, you know, we have a lot of data on this.

[00:37:31] Permit holders tend to be extremely law-abiding. They're convicted of any type of firearms-related crime at about 1 12th the rate that police are. You know, as we were talking about earlier, legally armed civilians stop more active shooting attacks than police do. Right. And, you know, you look around the world. You know, I travel around the world to give talks.

[00:37:58] This year I've given talks in Argentina and Australia. Last year in Brazil and Ecuador and Peru and places like that. And the thing that you come away with when you're in Canada and parts of Europe in the recent past, and one of the things that you come away with when you go and you give talks to police or to civilians in these different countries is how helpless people feel.

[00:38:23] And, you know, so we're talking about before about the rape and sexual assault rates in Australia, which is like crazy high, like three times higher than the rape and sexual assault rates in the United States. And you talk to young women there. Women in Australia aren't even allowed to have mace or pepper spray in virtually all the country there for going protection, let alone a gun, which would be even more protective.

[00:38:51] And the feeling of helplessness that people feel when you go and talk to them, when they're not able to go and defend themselves. You know, I'm sure there'd be women in the United States who may have been victims of violent crime in the past, who if they weren't able to be able to try to protect themselves with a gun, would just be locked up at home all the time because they'd be afraid to go out. Unfortunately, in many of these other countries, that's the way life is.

[00:39:21] For many people, they just, you know, and I talked to them. And in Australia, one talk I gave was I talked to some prosecutors there, and the prosecutors were telling me that they only about 9% of reported rapes and sexual assaults in New South Wales, for example, result in a conviction. And I gave a talk to college students that were there and talking to some women.

[00:39:49] And they were talking to them about the low rate that people are arrested and convicted for sexual assault and rape in Australia. And the fact that they rarely get reported, the women were saying, what's the point of reporting them? You know, if they come forward and publicly report them, it's just going to be embarrassing. You know, people are going to say, well, you know, was it your fault that this happened? And nothing's going to happen to the guy.

[00:40:14] And so what's the point of going out and being embarrassed and having to go through the process there to go through the legal system that's there? And so, you know, are there problems with law enforcement in the United States? Could we improve things? And have we been improving them dramatically under the Trump administration? Yeah. I mean, the number of arrests by the FBI went up 184% in 2025 compared to 2024.

[00:40:44] You have U.S. attorneys around the country who are much more prosecuting criminals. And one example for D.C. During the Biden administration, the U.S. attorney there who was appointed by the president, he only brought criminal charges against 33% of those who had been arrested by the president. Under Trump, that increased from 33% to 96%.

[00:41:11] And not only that, but many of the 33%, they didn't really even go for putting them in jail or prison. They would go for things like having them be just on probation. Whereas under Trump, they're going after them for real penalties for committing the crime. So you have... And we're safer. Yeah. Yeah. We're much safer. I'm just about out of time, and I do want to mention one more time on your website, crimeresearch.org,

[00:41:40] you know, you've been talking about speaking. I would encourage people to click on that button that says Contact because they might want to have you come and speak. Obviously, they can donate. They can subscribe to the material because I would imagine for most people, John Lott. This has been an education, and that's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the program, because you are dealing with so many facts and figures, and unfortunately, they're not accurately communicated by the press, and that's why we wanted to have you on the program, and we'll have you on again. So thank you for being with us today here on Point of View.

[00:42:11] Well, thank you for being there. You make a difference, and I greatly appreciate it. John Lott, again, you can find out more about him by going to crimeresearch.org, or simply, if you go to our own website, pointofview.net, I did a couple of times use the search engine and typed in John Lott, typed in Second Amendment, typed in gun control, you know, 80-some-odd articles here and 15 here and all sorts of things, which are great resources. I thought I might, again, hold up his book, More Guns, Less Crime.

[00:42:39] You might say, well, you're only talking about part of the issue. Well, that's right. I'll hold up the other book by Byron Johnson, More God, Less Crime, because we certainly do believe that what we can do in the prisons and what we can do in that regard is going to make a difference as well. That's all we have for today. Hope we educated you about an issue that's going to be front and center here in these new members of Congress, and they're going to be talking about that. As always, I want to thank Megan for their help, as well as Derek,

[00:43:07] and we encourage you to come tomorrow and join us right here on Point of View. We'll see you then. It almost seems like we live in a different world from many people in positions of authority. They say men can be women and women men. People are prosecuted differently or not at all, depending on their politics. Criminals are more valued and rewarded than law-abiding citizens. It's so overwhelming, so demoralizing.

[00:43:34] You feel like giving up, but we can't. We shouldn't. We must not. As Winston Churchill said to Britain in the darkest days of World War II, never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. And that's what we say to you today.

[00:43:57] This is not a time to give in, but to step up and join Point of View in providing clarity in the chaos. We can't do it alone, but together, with God's help, we will overcome the darkness. Invest in biblical clarity today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151. Pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151.

[00:44:29] Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.