by John R. Lott Jr.

About the author: John R. Lott Jr., author of More Guns, Less Crime, is the John M. Olin Law and Economics Fellow at the University of Chicago School of Law.

America may indeed be obsessed with guns, but much of what passes as fact simply isn’t true. The news media’s focus on only tragic outcomes, while ignoring tragic events that were avoided, may be responsible for some misimpressions. Horrific events like the 1998 shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas receive massive news coverage, as they should, but the 2.5 million times each year that people use guns defensively are never discussed—including cases where public shootings are stopped before they happen. Dramatic stories of mothers using guns to prevent their children from being kidnapped by carjackers seldom even make the local...