Listen to “‘They Can’t Find One Single Crime That’s Been Solved'” on Spreaker.
President Trump is taking heat from political adversaries and international activists for withdrawing the United States from the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, but one of the nation’s leading crime researchers says the tactics used in the treaty have never been used to solve any crime.
The Obama administration signed onto the Arms Trade Treaty shortly before Trump took office. It would require widespread firearm registration and licensing within signatory nations. The goal is to be able to track guns and prevent them from winding up in the hands of terrorists, gangs, cartels, and other nefarious elements.
Crime Prevention Research Center President Dr. John Lott says the premise seems to make sense: if you can find the gun used to commit a crime, you can find the person responsible. However, Lott says most guns aren’t left at the crime scene, those that are are not registered, and killers do not use guns registered in their own names.
In addition to concerns about second amendment rights, Lott says there’s literally no evidence the UN approach works.
“When you look at Hawaii or Chicago or Washington, D.C. or other countries such as Canada, people have gone back and looked at the data. They can’t find one single crime that’s been solved as a result of registration and licensing,” said Lott.
In Honolulu, for example, Lott says police logged 50,000 working hours filling out paperwork for gun licensing and registration. Not only has it not solved crimes, he says it’s taking valuable time away from police work that does yield results.
“Maybe if you’d solved thousands of crimes, or at least hundreds of crimes, or at least a dozen crimes, or at least any crime, then there might be some discussion about the trade-offs that were there. Obviously, 50,000 hours of police time could have been used in traditional policing that we know works, we know solves crime,” said Lott.
Listen to the full podcast as Dr. Lott explains how the UN Arms Trade Treaty could also handcuff U.S. foreign policy and how fierce the debate over the second amendment will be in the 2020 campaign.
