Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on “Fox News Sunday” to discuss the exchange of rocket fire with Hamas. “Our mission is to restore a sustained quiet,” Netanyahu said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on
Palestinians look at the damaged house of Gaza’s police chief Taysir al-Batsh after it was hit by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City, Sunday, July 13, 2014. The strike that hit the home and damaged a nearby mosque as evening prayers ended Saturday, killed at least 18 people, wounded 50 and left some people believed to be trapped under the rubble, said Palestinian Health Ministry official Ashraf al-Kidra. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
The Israeli air force dropped leaflets in the Gaza Strip Sunday warning residents to evacuate their homes before a campaign originally characterized as “short and temporary” by military officials. Now, the Israelis have deployed ground forces for the first time since the conflict began, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the length of the campaign will be dictated by success, not politics.
“We don’t know when the operation will end,” Prime Minister Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting Sunday. “It might take a long time.”
A military spokesman did previously tell The Associated Press that the campaign would begin sometime after 12 p.m. local time (5 a.m. Eastern Time) Sunday, and this is the second time in two days that Israel has given residents of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip such a warning.
On Saturday, the military said it was ordering Palestinians in northern Gaza to evacuate “for their own safety.” After the Palestinian militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for 10 rockets that were fired at Tel Aviv, Israel announced it would hit northern Gaza “with great force” to prevent rocket attacks from hitting larger Israeli cities. Shortly after warning, an Israeli air attack targeted the home of the Gaza police chief, Taysir al-Batsh, resulting in the death of at least 18 people and wounding 50, according to Health Ministry official Ashraf al-Kidra.
The Israeli military confirmed it had killed a Palestinian in Gaza who is believed to be behind the barrage of rockets launched at the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.
Despite criticizing Israel over the increasing number of civilian casualties, Gaza’s Interior Ministry told residents to ignore Israel’s warnings and to stay in their homes. He said the announcement was Israeli “psychological warfare” and hope to create confusion. Palestinians health officials said the death toll from Israeli strikes raised is now more than 156, with over 1,060 wounded.
Israel has launched more than 1,300 air strikes since the offensive to end Hamas rocket fire “once and for all” began, military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner confirmed Sunday. Palestinian militants have lobbed more than 800 rockets at Israel, including 130 in just the last 24 hours.
The “Iron Dome,” an Israeli-developed but U.S.-funded gift from a more Israel-friendly U.S. administration, has intercepted over 130 Hamas rockets, which has thus far prevented Israeli fatalities. However, some Israelis have been wounded by rockets that slipped through the air defense.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council unanimously called for a cease-fire, and the Security Council’s 15 members released a statement that calls for “the reinstitution of the November 2012 cease-fire,” which was brokered by Egypt. British Foreign Minister William Hague said he will discuss cease-fire efforts with his American, French and German counterparts on Sunday, while the Arab League said foreign ministers from member states will hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Monday.
Nothing the U.N. Security Council has done or discussed is legally binding, but further demonstrates sentiment in the U.N.’s most powerful body. Even though the members have been deeply divided on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel is held to a higher standard than the Palestinians, with members arguing the Israelis should begin the cease fire and restore whatever international credibility their opponents say they’ve lost.
However, Hamas has said they would not be the first to cease fire, no matter what. The conflict is showing little sign of deescalation, as Israel even responded with force Saturday to an attack from a radical Lebanese militant group that fired at least four rockets into Upper Galilee Friday. Israel fired into Lebanon late Saturday in response to those rockets falling in northern Israel, and they fears more militant groups in Lebanon will try to launch more attacks, opening up a second front against the encircled Israeli country.
The latest outbreak of violence came after the kidnappings and killings of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, who were found in a shallow grave in the West Bank. Then, in what is widely believed to be a revenge killing, the kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian teenager further escalated the situation, resulting in Hamas launching rockets into a residential neighborhood in Sderot.
The Gaza Interior Minister said to ignore
This week on the McLaughlin Group, Pat Buchanan, Eleanor Clift, Guy Taylor and Mort Zuckerman talk about the latest political events. Illegals and the border crisis, Obama offered pot during his fundraiser trip, the violence in Israel and Hillary, are all on the agenda.
Part 2
This week on the McLaughlin Group, Pat
(Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A new survey conducted by Gallup found that American consumer spending over the summer will be consumed by healthcare, energy and foods costs, leaving little left for leisure. In total, 45 percent of Americans reported spending more than they did a year ago, while 18 percent reported spending less.
However, Americans’ increased spending was fueled by an increase in the cost of must-haves, rather than on discretionary purchases. While more than half of Americans say they are spending about the same for rent or mortgage, household goods, telephone, automobile expenses other than fuel, personal care products and the Internet, the cost of the previously mentioned goods has been skyrocketing.
Unfortunately, particularly regarding healthcare costs, the end for cost increases isn’t remotely near.
A study conducted by healthcare analysts at Morgan Stanley found health insurance premiums are set to increase at the highest rate ever measured by the firm. The survey of 148 brokers concluded health insurance premiums increase under ObamaCare mainly because of ObamaCare, blatantly stating “increases are largely due to changes under the ACA.”
Ironically, Gallup also reported that the rate of American uninsured fell to 13.4 percent.
Gallup also noted that — even though they found more Americans have plans to travel this summer for vacation — the headline data are misleading, because of the number of travelers who say they plan to stay close to home, or substitute a typical vacation for a far more modest get-away.
“More than two-thirds of those traveling this summer intend to take a trip longer than an overnight trip. Among those, most will travel by car (81%), whereas slightly less than half will take at least one trip by air (47%),” John Fleming of Gallup said.
“Less than 10% intend to travel by bus or train this summer. Slightly more than half expect both transportation and non-transport expenses for their summer trips to cost more this year than last.”
The survey blunts Democratic talking points and claims made by the administration, as it is just one more expected result of policies that have unequivocally raised the costs for Americans seeking to meet their bare necessities.
Paul Krugman and other progressive economists who support President Obama pointed to an increase in consumer spending to support their claims that the economy was on the verge of a rebound this year. However, what we have seen bears little resemblance to their interpretation of economic events.
Consumer spending, which made up 71 percent of the American economy last year, is increasingly spent on a select range of products that are increasing in cost and necessity. For instance, as more people adjust their budgets to compensate for the rise in healthcare costs, there are fewer people to fuel the prosperity of other sectors. An truly healthy economy has strength in diversity, not necessity.
What this translates to on a human level, is less misery.
“If there was any doubt that the U.S. economy is still struggling to get back on its feet, the results of this poll reinforce that reality,” Fleming added. “Because consumer spending is the lifeblood of a healthy economy, these findings suggest that discretionary spending still has a ways to go before it will fuel the kind of economic growth Americans have been hoping for.”
A new survey conducted by Gallup found
After giving up global fame more than a decade ago to be a stay-at-home dad, Garth Brooks says he is ready for a comeback. Brooks was one of, if not the biggest country star of the 1990s.
Brooks destroyed country music touring records with his 1998 Capitol release “Sevens.” The three-year go-around grossed more than $105 million, which was country music’s first $100 million project, and drew close to 5.5 million people. Brooks charged just $20 per ticket.
After giving up global fame more than
Catherine Engelbrecht, the head of the voting integrity group, True The Vote, and a victom of the IRS targeting scandal. (Photo: FOX News)
Two federal judges in under a week have ordered the IRS to explain under oath how the agency lost emails from former division director Lois Lerner, the woman at the center of the targeting scandal. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton ordered Obama administration lawyers Friday to produce an affidavit explaining exactly what happened to Ms. Lerner’s hard drive.
The IRS claimed the computer suffered a crash back in 2011, conveniently the period the targeting took place, which wiped her email records at the time clean. Worth noting, the vast majority of the American people — 76 percent — aren’t buying the government’s story about the lost IRS emails, and just 12 percent of voters believe the emails were destroyed accidentally. The number includes 63 percent of Democrats.
And the judge wasn’t buying it either.
Judge Walton said he wants to know exactly what happened to Lerner’s hard drive, and ordered an affidavit be produced from those involved in handling the drive.
True the Vote is also seeking a motion to speed up discovery and “preserve and prevent further destruction” of IRS emails and missing documents. Group counsel for True the Vote, Cleta Mitchell accused the IRS of playing a “shell game,” by arguing that the plaintiffs could not prove any emails were lost.
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered agency officials to explain under oath how a likely treasure trove of lost IRS emails disappeared, and they only have 30 days to comply. The order came Thursday as part of a freedom of information lawsuit by another conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch.
Judge Sullivan took the unprecedented step to appoint Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola to manage and assist in discussions, as well as ordered the IRS to work with the group to decide the methods used how to obtain the missing records from various sources.
Pressure is building on a scandal-plagued Obama administration. Texas Republican Rep. Steve Stockman filed a resolution directing the House sergeant-at-arms to arrest Lerner on charges of contempt of Congress, which passed the House on May 7. Attorney General Eric Holder is facing increasing criticism for not pursuing the investigation in what many see as an effort to protect his boss, President Obama.
Holder appointed an Obama donor, Barbara Kay Bosserman, to head up a circus investigation earlier in the year that went no where. However, with federal judges helping the American people get closer to the truth, it is unclear whether Holder can continue to run interference.
Two federal judges in under a week have ordered
The former IRS official Lois Lerner, the figure at the center of the IRS scandal.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered agency officials to explain under oath how a likely treasure trove of lost IRS emails to and from Lois Lerner, the central figure in the targeting scandal, went missing. Sullivan gave the IRS 30 days to comply in the form of a declaration by an “appropriate official.”
The order came Thursday as part of a freedom of information lawsuit by the conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch. The IRS says it lost the emails in 2011 due to a convenient computer crashed that took place at the exact time Lerner headed the IRS division unfairly targeted conservative applications for tax-exempt status as part of a political agenda to blunt the effects of the Supreme Court Decision in Citizens United.
“In a victory for public accountability, Judge Emmett Sullivan ordered that the IRS must submit to the court a written declaration under oath in the next 30 days about what happened to Lois Lerner’s ‘lost’ emails and any other computer records reportedly lost by the IRS,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.
Judge Sullivan took the unprecedented step to appoint Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola to manage and assist in discussions, as well as ordered the IRS to work with the group to decide the methods used how to obtain the missing records from various sources.
Judge Sullivan further authorized the group Judicial Watch to submit a request when needed for limited discovery into the missing IRS records after the September 10 date.
The ruling comes as new emails emerged showing that Lois Lerner cautioned her own staff about “what we say in emails,” and wanted to make sure that messages in the internal IRS chat system, known as the Office Communications Server, weren’t being tracked or accessible to Congress.
“I was cautioning folks about email and how we have had several occasions where Congress has asked for emails and there has been an electronic search for responsive emails — so we need to be cautious about what we say in emails,” Lerner wrote in an email to IT employee Maria Hooke on April 9, 2013.
Hooke wrote back to Lerner that the messages “are not set to automatically save” but that anyone could “copy and save the contents” to an email or file.
She suggested that Lerner and other officials at the IRS should treat these messages “as if it could/is being saved [somewhere], as it is possible for either party of the conversation to retain the information and have it turn up as part of the electronic search.”
“Perfect,” Lerner replied.
The latest emails are damning to the Obama administration and Attorney General Eric Holder, who now has little excuse as to why he hasn’t acted on the House’s vote to refer Lerner for criminal investigation or contempt. Back in January, House Republicans said that the Justice Department’s investigation had been “compromised,” after the Obama administration outrageously appointed one of President Obama’s donors to head up the circus probe.
“In our view, there has been a cover-up that has been going on,” Fitton said. “The Department of Justice, the IRS, had an obligation, an absolute obligation … to alert the court and alert Judicial Watch as soon as they knew when these records were supposedly lost.”
Barbara Kay Bosserman, the trial attorney appointed to investigate the IRS scandal, is a long-term donor of both the Democratic National Committee and President Obama. Campaign finance records show Bosserman contributed at least $6,750.00 going back to 2004 and donated sometimes twice a month, rotating between Obama’s campaign and the Democratic national committee. At one point, she gave $1,000.00 in one shot to the “Obama for America” super PAC.
Still, Judge Sullivan’s ruling without a doubt marks the best chance for the American people to both hold their government accountable for despotism and get closer to the truth. Those who know the highly respected judge say the IRS is likely to get hammered if the result of the inquiry is not adequate. Though the administration clearly thought the American people would swallow an excuse IT techs have said has less than a 1 in 1 million chance of being true, neither Judge Sullivan nor Magistrate Facciola are politically-motivated push overs.
“Magistrate Facciola is an expert in e-discovery,” Fitton added.
“These extraordinary court ruling are key steps in unraveling the Obama IRS’s ongoing cover up of its abuses against critics of this administration.”
Judicial Watch has played a pivotal role in getting answers on a number of scandals plaguing the Obama administration, including the suspected cover up of the details surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks on the Benghazi consulate in 2012. It was only due to the emails obtained by the group as a result of another FOIA lawsuit that Speaker John Boehner allowed a vote to establish a select committee. The emails received by court order were not redacted to the same degree identical emails received by the House were, clearly demonstrating the administration was attempting to hide information from congressional investigators.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered
July 11, 2014: A Lebanese army personnel inspects the remains of a shell that was suspected of having been launched from Lebanon to Israel, near the village of El Mari in Southern Lebanon. (Photo: Reuters)
As rocket fire from Gaza penetrated deeper into Israel Friday, a radical Lebanese group has joined Hamas in launching rocket attacks early Friday morning. The Lebanese military said three rockets were fired toward Israel around 6 a.m. and that Israel responded by firing roughly 25 artillery shells on the area.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner confirmed the response by the Israeli military, and one of the three rockets landed in a village in the Upper Galilee. Israeli military officials say the IDF has hit 1,100 targets in the Gaza Strip since the start of an operation launched Monday to end Gazan rocket attacks “once and for all.” Roughly 210 targets were hit over just the past 24 hours.
According to the Jerusalem Post, during the past 24 hours, the IDF struck 81 underground rocket launchers, 21 command and control centers, 15 attack tunnels, and ten training centers. Also, seven Hamas regime buildings were also hit, 600 underground rocket launchers were targeted, as well as 95 command and control centers, 61 underground tunnels and 22 regime buildings.
Nearly 100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched a major offensive on Tuesday, but Hamas continues to target Southern and Central Israel with heavy rocket fire. Israeli officials said the strikes are targeting rocket-launching sites and homes that double as command and control sites for Hamas militants, and that they have tried to minimize civilian casualties.
“But when Hamas embeds itself in the civilian population and uses it as a human shield,” said Lt. Col. Lerner. “That makes it very difficult for us.”
At a meeting of the UN Security Council, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour accused Israel of war crimes and terrorism, reading off the lists of names of the children who had been killed in Israeli air strikes since Operation Protective Edge began on Tuesday.
“The immediate thing that we want is for the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility and stop this aggression against our people,” Mansour said on Wednesday. He also repeatedly denounced what he called Israel’s attempts to “discredit” the unity government.
The unity government Mansour referred to was put together in early June by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who relied upon Hamas support to remain in power.
Israel’s Ambassador Ron Prosor took out his phone and played the sobering sound of an air-raid siren.
“Fifteen seconds,” he told the diplomats. “That’s how much time you have to run for your life,” Prosor said. “Our clear goal is to dismantle the infrastructure that Hamas has amassed. [Hamas] has turned this whole place [Gaza] into a launching pad of terror.”
Meanwhile, Lerner blamed Hamas for the death of bystanders by firing from heavily populated areas and using those areas as cover.
Israel’s military “uses its weapons to defend its civilians. Hamas uses its civilians to defend its weapons,” he said.
Israeli leaders are still deciding whether to launch a ground assault in Gaza to deliver n attack of overwhelming force. Israel has mobilized more than 30,000 reservists to supplement the potential ground operation.
As rocket fire from Gaza penetrated deeper
Incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen (left) and her likely Republican challenger and former MA senator Scott Brown (right) will face off in the New Hampshire race.
As is often the case in politics, a lot has happened since PPD first visited the New Hampshire Senate race. In the media, the disastrous rollout of ObamaCare has now taken a back seat to the rocky rollout of Scott Brown’s campaign.
It is no secret that incumbent Senator Jeanne Shaheen and her team were scared of a challenge from former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown. So, the bombardment of negative attack ads hoping to define Brown as a carpetbagger came on early and hard.
And it has worked.
After closing the double-digit gap to under five points, Brown now trails Shaheen again by a low-double-digit margin in the PPD average of recent polls. Worse still, he is now viewed more unfavorably than favorably in a majority of recent polls conducted in the state. But, to be fair, much of the respondents who give Brown negative ratings are not independents, the group of voters who typically decide New Hampshire elections. Brown is having a problem that New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte never had — part of his base doesn’t like him.
At a monthly meeting for the Gun Owners of New Hampshire, a group that rightfully fears efforts by the United Nations to abolish Second Amendment rights, Brown had a less than easy time answering questions from the crowd. Jame Oliphant of the National Journal had a great piece last month that captured the somewhat awkward, yet often combative gathering. Many on the right simply do not trust Brown, who offered support for a gun ban after the Newtown, CT, school shooting.
Ironically, some activists were openly declaring their support for another GOP candidate, Bob Smith. The former two-term senator, who had previously promised he was not running, should raise far more suspicion than Brown within conservative circles. After his 2002 re-election defeat to the more-conservative John Sununu, Smith moved to Florida where he endorsed the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, now-Sec. of State John Kerry.
Nevertheless, the fact that Brown cannot convince his own base that he is more trustworthy or more conservative than Bob Smith, speaks volumes.
National Republicans spent a year pleading with Brown to run against Shaheen, emboldened by her steadfast support for a flawed health care law that is deeply unpopular in the state. Focusing only on the fundamentals and the state’s political history shows there is, in fact, a clear opportunity for Brown or another credible Republican candidate to defeat Shaheen.
In the Granite State, Republicans have made relative gains in voter registration, PVI trends (Partisan Voting Index) and Gallup’s annual state-by-state party ID survey. However, unlike Republicans, after the 2012 election Obama’s OFA team remained in New Hampshire to continue their perpetual campaign, which may blunt the natural rightward shift we are observing in the electorate this year, both in New Hampshire and nationwide.
New Hampshire has a propensity to decide elections late, give pollsters erroneous responses and follow nationwide trends. In 2008, Sununu was defeated by another popular former governor, Jeanne Shaheen, largely due to another unpopular president, George W. Bush. But, in 2010, just when liberals thought it was safe to be “big government” in a state notorious for their anti-tax sentiment, now-Sen. Kelly Ayotte smoked Rep. Paul Hodes by over 20 points. With a PVI of D+2, Republicans picked up both seats in the House of Representatives and saw their largest majorities in the state House and Senate since 1962 and 1900, respectively.
Then, just when Republicans thought it was safe to be socially conservative, the same anti-tax Northern suburbanites, who previously migrated from too-blue Massachusetts, broke late for Barack Obama, helping Democrats recapture both House seats and the state House of Representatives.
Even though the NRSC says they are neutral, many other Republicans thought Brown was just the candidate to bring these voters back into the Republican coalition. Yet, even though the PVI shifted slightly to D+1 in 2014, so far that’s just not happening.
Still, Republicans have good reason to feel they have a better than average chance to unseat this incumbent senator. President Obama’s job approval rating in the state cannot even hold at 44 percent for more than a day at a time, and averages from 42 – 43 percent. Tying Shaheen to Obama really shouldn’t be that hard of a task, considering she has supported every major piece of his legislative agenda and controversial appointments.
“In the minds of voters, Barack Obama’s disastrous agenda is Jeanne Shaheen’s agenda,” Bill Murphy, spokesman for the NRSC said in an email to PPD. “Voters are looking for competence and credibility in Washington and President Obama and Democrats on the ballot clearly have a crisis of both.”
Brown is potentially one of the best retail politicians in modern American politics. However, he will need to up his game if he wants to earn his status as the GOP frontrunner and have a shot at defeating Shaheen. In politics, the bottom line is that no one wants to back the candidate they perceive to be a loser, whether that characterization is fair or not. In a Republican year, when the party is seeing the Senate map expand in their favor, they will look to other opportunities to make the necessary net gains to retake the majority.
Politico recently reported that “Brown needs to be within 5 to 7 percentage points of Shaheen by mid-September or national money won’t come.” We heard the same rumblings in early June, so it’s safe to say they are serious.
Shaheen, compared to other Democrats in purple and red states, has a relatively high favorability rating in her state. Brown has his work cut out for him and better step it up. Until then, we are moving the New Hampshire Senate race back to the “Likely Democrat” rating it was assigned before Brown announced his bid.
Worth noting, this is why we beat the importance of candidate recruitment over and over in our readers’ heads, because save for this one variable, our model tells us this race should be far more competitive than Brown has been able to it make thus far.
| Poll | Date | Sample | MoE | Shaheen (D) | Brown (R) | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PPD Average | 4/24 – 7/1 | — | — | 49.4 | 39.0 | Shaheen +10.4 |
| WMUR/UNH | 6/19 – 7/1 | 509 LV | 4.3 | 52 | 40 | Shaheen +12 |
| ARG | 6/14 – 6/18 | 540 RV | 4.2 | 50 | 38 | Shaheen +12 |
| Suffolk/Boston Herald* | 6/14 – 6/18 | 800 LV | 3.5 | 49 | 39 | Shaheen +10 |
| Vox Populi (R) | 5/14 – 5/15 | 707 RV | 3.6 | 47 | 35 | Shaheen +12 |
| CEA/Hickman Analytics (D) | 4/24 – 4/30 | 400 LV | 4.9 | 49 | 43 | Shaheen +6 |
| Dartmouth | 4/21 – 4/25 | 412 RV | 4.8 | 39 | 36 | Shaheen +3 |
| WMUR/UNH | 4/1 – 4/9 | 387 LV | 5.0 | 45 | 39 | Shaheen +6 |
| ARG | 3/13 – 3/16 | 533 RV | 4.2 | 50 | 38 | Shaheen +12 |
| Rasmussen Reports | 3/12 – 3/13 | 750 LV | 4.0 | 50 | 41 | Shaheen +9 |
| Suffolk/Boston Herald | 2/27 – 3/5 | 800 LV | 3.5 | 52 | 39 | Shaheen +13 |
| WMUR/UNH | 1/21 – 1/26 | 454 LV | — | 47 | 37 | Shaheen +10 |
| Purple Strategies | 1/21 – 1/23 | 1052 LV | 3.0 | 44 | 44 | Tie |
| PPP (D) | 1/9 – 1/12 | 1354 RV | 2.7 | 46 | 43 | Shaheen +3 |
| ARG | 12/13 – 12/16 | 549 RV | 4.2 | 48 | 38 | Shaheen +10 |
| PPP (D) | 9/13 – 9/16 | 1038 RV | 3.0 | 48 | 44 | Shaheen +4 |
| New England College | 5/2 – 5/5 | 807 RV | 3.3 | 54 | 35 | Shaheen +19 |
| Dartmouth | 4/22 – 4/25 | 433 RV | 4.7 | 44 | 30 | Shaheen +14 |
Fundamentals suggest the New Hampshire Senate race
A study conducted by the Crime Prevention Research Center found a large increase in the number of Americans with concealed gun permits coincided with a dramatic drop in violent crime. Currently, 11.1 million Americans have permits to carry concealed weapons, up from 4.5 million in 2007 and a 146 percent increase.
Coincidentally, both murder and violent crime rates have plummeted by 22 percent, despite the dreadful economic conditions over the same period. Poor economic conditions — it has been established — also correlates with a sharp increase in violent crime.
“We found that the size of the drop [in crime] is directly related to the percentage of the population with permits,” the center’s president John R. Lott said.
The study was released just after one of the most violent weekends in Chicago, Illinois this year. Over 80 people were killed or injured in gun violence over the July 4 weekend, which opponents of gun rights were quick to blame on federal court decisions that struck down long-time bans on gun stores within city limits and other strict ownership restrictions. After losing in federal court, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel crafted a draconian plan that would leave 99.5 of the city off-limits to gun stores.
But, according to Lott’s study, Mayor Emanual’s plan would do more harm than good.
“When you allow people to carry concealed handguns, you see changes in the behavior of criminals,” Lott, added. “Some criminals stop committing crimes, others move on to crimes in which they don’t come into contact with victims and others actually move to areas where they have less fear of being confronted by armed victims.”
Illinois became the 50th state to start issuing concealed weapons permits, also after losing in federal court. Still, six states don’t even require a permit for legal gun owners to conceal their weapons, which Lott points out are states that have some of the lowest violent crime rates in the United States. But, not surprisingly, the real correlation comes not from laws that serve as deterrents, but rather the average number of persons per state who carry weapons.
There are 10 states where more than 8 percent of adults have concealed gun permits, and all were found to be among the states with the lowest crime rates in the nation. The study’s analysis shows that for every one percentage point increase in the adult population holding permits, there is a 1.4 percent drop in the murder rate.
Meanwhile, PPD previously reported that Eric Holder’s Justice Department commissioned a study in Obama’s first term on the 1994 gun ban. The government concluded that gun bans do not lower crime rates, and the largely insignificant reductions in crime during short periods the gun ban was in effect were attributed to economic growth and prosperity.
With the economy still contracting five years after the Great Recession, growth certainly can not explain the reduction of crime since 2007.
A study conducted by the Crime Prevention
