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A Response to the Media on Brazil

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A Response to the Media on Brazil
A Brazilian policeman provides security for construction workers at a cave site used by drug dealers to incinerate their victims in a bush area at Morro da Grota shantytown in Rio de Janeiro on June 6, 2003. Andre Vieira/Getty Images
John R. Lott Jr.
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Commentary

Although one wouldn’t know it from the media coverage of gun control, the best social science has shown that law-abiding citizens frequently deter criminals. But when ideology trumps facts, policymakers are easily led astray. The latest example is occurring in Brazil, where massive increase in gun ownership in recent years has prompted gun control advocates to reinterpret the data in ways that conform to their political views.

John R. Lott Jr.
John R. Lott Jr.
Author
John R. Lott Jr. is the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and the author of “Gun Control Myths” (2020), “Dumbing Down the Courts,” and “Freedomnomics.”
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