In the first half, economist and gun rights advocate John Lott shared his belief that Americans have been bombarded by well-funded anti-gun studies and stories that perpetuate false statistics to frighten people into giving up their guns. He claims that when it comes to the gun control debate, there are two kinds of data: data that's accurate, and data that billionaires, politicians, and media want you to believe is accurate. Further, he argues that gun licenses and background checks don't stop crime and "gun-free" zones actually attract mass shooters.
The current system of background checks is a mess, he remarked. While there have been 2.4 million people who received initial denials to buy a gun, about 99% of those were "false positives" who had similar names to felons, he reported. Additionally, high fees and taxes on gun purchases in some states are unfair to those living on or below the poverty line, who may most need the protection, he said.
In regards to mass shootings in public places such as nightclubs, Lott suggested that the media refuses to report that these incidents typically happen in states (such as Florida) that ban concealed carry in certain types of establishments. Concealed carry often saves lives, but the media keeps this hushed up, Lott contended. He cited a case in Conway, Georgia, where a man was shooting people inside a liquor store, and a person just outside the store with a concealed carry was able to fire on the assailant before he killed more, and the whole thing was caught on film. Yet many news outlets refused to show the footage because they thought the story would be overly politicized, he lamented.
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Midweek Open Lines were featured in the latter half of the show, with a number of callers weighing in on the gun control issue, as well as the US presidential election. Zach, a policeman in Texas, suggested that America's crime rate is higher than many other countries because the population here is so diverse. Pat from Rock Springs, Wyoming spoke about witnessing a jet that may have been involved in chemtrail spraying in his area, and then finding a strange powdery reddish material coating his yard. Jack from Illinois shared a story about an angelic intervention when a little boy was saved from drowning in a neighbor's swimming pool.
News segment guests: Howard Bloom, Dr. Peter Breggin