John Lott: Joe Biden Gun Proposals Will Harm Blacks, Hispanics

President Joe Biden listens as Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks at a news con
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Appearing on Steve Malzberg’s weekly Sunday commentary show “Eat the Press” Dr. John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and author of Gun Control Myths, blasted President Joe Biden’s recent gun control proposals, claiming they were based on “lies” and will endanger “blacks and hispanics” living in high crime urban areas.

After Malzberg called out Biden for denying he intends to limit the Second Amendment while saying “in the next breath” that “no amendment to the Constitution is absolute,” Lott replied that, “In ten minutes or so [Biden] literally made about at least two dozen different lies on [the subject],” with some of the claims being “so outrageous.”

“It’s just like one false claim after another,” he added. 

One example Lott cited was Biden’s claim that the “alleged” reason for the substantial increase in homicides last year was due to a “lack of gun control.”

“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realize that when you have inmates being released from jails and prisons, and some in a number of places more than fifty percent of the inmates being released; when you have police being ordered to stand down and not do their jobs; when you have police budgets being cut and prosecutors in major urban areas refusing to prosecute violent criminals; if you make it so that criminals aren’t being caught, and when they are caught — not being punished, and it’s not risky for them to commit crime, guess what? They’re going to commit more crime.” 

Lot added the “irony” of the situation is Biden is “claiming that he cares about poor blacks and hispanics that live in these high crime urban areas,” yet “the proposals that he wants are actually going to harm them.” 

“It’s going to make it so those are the very people who aren’t going to be able to afford the fees and other costs that he’s imposing on law-abiding gun owners,” Lott elaborated.

Noting the left simultaneously seeks to prevent effective policing, Lott claimed the proposals would endanger the poor even more so.

“So we have this weird situation where Democrats across the country are making so law enforcement isn’t going to be doing a job,” he said. “But people then are going to find it difficult to go and depend upon themselves, particularly poor people to be able to defend themselves when the police aren’t allowed to do their job.”

On Thursday, Biden unveiled a series of executive actions targeting American citizens’ Second Amendment rights.

“Today, we’re taking steps to confront not just the gun crisis, but what is actually a public health crisis,” he announced in a speech at the White House’s Rose Garden, adding, “Nothing, nothing I am about to recommend in any way impinges on the Second Amendment.”

As part of his orders, Biden directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to write laws requiring background checks for homemade “ghost guns,” while requesting the DOJ develop a model for “red flag” laws for states as a guideline. 

Additionally, he announced the nomination of gun control advocate David Chipman to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). 

Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

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