Places that try to prohibit their citizens from carrying firearms end up seeing a spike in violent crime, says economist and gun expert John Lott Jr.
"If you look around the world, every place that has tried to ban guns [has] an increase in murder rates and violent crimes. It's not just in Chicago or Washington, D.C., where we tried those bans, that you saw dramatic increases," Lott told Ed Berliner, guest host of "The Steve Malzberg Show," on Newsmax TV.
"Even island nations that you'd think would be kind of the ideal experiment, you know, well defined, easily defendable borders, no neighbor to go and blame for providing weapons," he said Tuesday.
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Lott — author of
"More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws," published by the University of Chicago Press — said there is a simple reason for the increases.
"Who obeys these laws? When you pass a law and it's primarily good, law-abiding citizens who were disarmed . . . you actually make it easier for criminals to go and commit crimes," he said.
"If you look at multiple-victim public shootings, attacks in which four or more people have been killed since 1950 — with just two exceptions —every single one . . . [has] taken place where guns are banned."
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