The research director for Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control advocacy group co-founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, recently refused to appear for an on-air debate with longtime gun law researcher John Lott on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal.”“When there’s a credible scientist — somebody who wants to have a real constructive conversation about this, we’re going to be there,” researcher Ted Alcorn said. “But folks who seek to minimize the issue of gun violence, the grave issue of gun violence in this country or to draw attention away from the real issues to themselves — that’s not a conversation that I think is productive to be a part of.”
We have seen done by Shannon Watts since she started cultivating her astroturf. Then again, Mr. Alcorn according to his Linkedin profile, is basically a filmmaker and not truly a scholar in the arts of research. A debate against Dr. Lott would have been like tossing a 4-year-old in a mosh pit.
What is really sad is that he “Filmed testimonies in-country with genocide survivors for use in a video archive and educational program” but the lessons of the genocide seem to have gone over his head at Mach 5.
Astroturf pays well, I guess.
PhD in Economics beats MA in International Economics any day. John Lott is not always the most articulate speaker but he knows his sh*t.
“…that’s not a conversation that I think is productive to be a part of.” Of course not. It is not productive of your agenda to have your premises destroyed in public.
It’s quite possible that he took to heart the lessons of genocide, and that those lessons inform his views on gun control.
Sad view, but cannot be discarded.
“Astroturf pays well, I guess.”
It’s that sweet sweet Bloomberg money. 50 million isn’t anything to sneeze at.
I offered to do a weekly antigun screed on my own blog for some of that money. I guess they didn’t believe my heart was in it. 😉
This is where our side stumbles, if you ask me. What Dr. Lott should do is simple: hold the debate anyway.
Invite a half dozen… Hell, invite _dozens_ of the anti-gun movements best and brightest. All of them to debate Dr. Lott by his lonesome. Publicize the venue, the date, that it will stream live on YouTube, and that you’ll be using Oxford Rules.
Then, when they chicken out and don’t show up, hold the debate anyway. Talk to an empty podium for an hour.
If they DO show up, Lott can still whip their asses the old fashioned way.