Media Hype Questionable Gun Control Study

Dozens of news outlets reported that America has the most mass shooters in the world. Many say that shows America needs more gun control.

---------
---------

CNN claimed that "the U.S. has the most mass shootings". The WSJ reported that "U.S. leads the world in mass shootings." Nearly every major media outlet and former President Obama said the same.

But the claim is based on just one study, and the author of that study, Adam Lankford, would not release his data to other gun reseachers in the field.

Economist John Lott argues that Lankford's study has many flaws.

Lott is the author of the books “More Guns, Less Crime” and “Bias against Guns.” His son, Maxim Lott, works for Stossel TV.

Stossel says because of that, he repeatedly asked Lankford to show him the study data that he would not reveal to Lott. But Lankford would not disclose it to Stossel either.

Lankford claimed to find "complete data" for all mass shootings in 171 countries from 1966 to 2012. But Lott notes that Lankford doesn’t reveal basic details about how he found shootings in so many countries -- most of which don’t speak English. And most of those years, those countries didn’t have the internet.

Lott argues that finding complete data for mass shooters in just one developing country, such as India, would be an incredible feat, as many shootings would be reported only in local outlets in the local language.

U.S. mass shootings, on the other hand, are well-documented and hard to miss.

Lott says that if Lankford missed foreign cases but found all the U.S. ones, his paper’s entire conclusion that the US has the most mass shooters could fall apart.

Lankford has declined to answer questions about how he searched for foreign-language cases.

Lott counted more than 3,000 cases around the world -- several times more than the 202 cases Lankford found. Lott found 15 times more, despite the fact that he only looked for shootings in the last 15 years, whereas Lankford looked at 46 years.

Lott attempted to use the same definition of "mass shooter" that Lankford used, although that’s difficult. In Lankford's paper, Lankford says he excludes "sponsored terrorism" but does not define what he means by that.

To be safe, Lott removed all terrorism cases from his data. When he did that that, he still found 709 shooters around the world -- more than 3 times what Lankford found.

Gun control advocates have used the Lankford study to argue that mass shootings are caused by the comparatively high gun ownership rate in the U.S.

But when Lankford's data are fixed, Lott says, there is no longer any correlation between gun ownership rate and mass shootings.

Lott concludes: "There is a lesson here. Lankford’s critical but simple error could have been picked up if journalists had only demanded his data and methods before publicizing his study.”

That’s something journalists rarely do.

Lott adds: "Journalists should learn to be skeptical... and in the meantime, we should all be skeptical of news coverage of studies like this -- that simply confirm what journalists and people want to hear."

[sarjim]

How did he ever get in a peer reviewed journal without out disclosing his sources and data? Who reviewed his study? Something stinks here.

[joepinkston]

The real nail in the coffin here: Lankford searched across *171* countries for a total of 202 shootings in the rest of the world. And John Lott searched across *86* countries and still managed to find 15 times the amount Lankford did.

[ilovebrandnewcarpets]

Stossel isn't even a big "gun guy", but he's the biggest NO BS guy that I've ever seen.

Stossel for prez.

[tehArgento]

Lol, when they refuse to share their data you know there is something sketchy going on

[weslyon]

Thank you Mr. Stossel, every American would do well to see this, thank you for shedding light and spreading the truth.

[richardcorwin]

More "reliable" NPC "science".

[michiganborn]

It's not about the gun control, it's about the control. Period.

[watchdealer]

Excellent video. Not just from a libertarian/pro-gun perspective but also a media-skepticism perspective.

[mint]

When someone does a study and refuses to share how it's done you can pretty much figure there's some major flaws in it.

[sambo]

Well I'll tell you that I'm for gun control. If I'm in any danger I want to be in control of a gun LoL.

[norsefalconer]

Really, an anti-gun study that won't list it's references? That's new (eye roll). There's only one objective here, control, and armed folks are very difficult to control. I bet following the funding trail for this "study" would prove quite interesting.

[col.cottonhill]

Stossel is one of the last true journalists.

[dannykhasirify]

John Lott is one of the most articulate thinkers about crime in our time, and should not be discounted. God bless you both for bringing facts to bare for the world to see the truth.

[libertypastor]

Way to go, John Stossel and John Lott Jr.!
True American Patriots, true journalists.

[carlschnackel]

Does this really surprise any one? Especially since the MSM no longer concerns itself with the "trivial" matter of telling the truth.

[theschwag]

Thank you, Mr. Stossel. You're doing the Lord's work.

[bocca_lupo]

Super awesome video thanks John and crew ! I learned so much

[peterking]

In the UK, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1969-1998) there were 36, 923 shootings.

[weslyon]

It is easier to get people to believe lies than to get them to believe they are being lied to

[likesowls]

As an auditor who deals with statistics and extrapolations, I find such studies, polls, and trends to have questionable merit when the basis is not clearly presented for all to examine.