Email, Jack Warner, deputy press secretary, Everytown for Gun Safety, Jan. 8, 2016
3:19 p.m.
As we discussed over the phone, it is not accurate that there have been only two mass shootings at places that are not so-called "gun-free zones."
Even if we operate under Lott's narrow definition of "gun-free zone," places where citizens can legally carry a firearm, not just law enforcement, he is still drastically understating the number of cases where gunmen have perpetrated mass shootings in non-gun-free zones. In addition to the two shootings he admits -- at the IHOP in Carson City and at the Safeway in Tucscon -- consider just a few additional examples, and these are just some of the ones we've researched since 2009 (not the longer time period he references since 1950):
1) San Francisco, CA, 1/9/15 An unknown assailant shot and killed four young men while they were in a parked car on the street. Police say at least four guns were involved in the incident and two guns were recovered inside the car.
· In California, persons with a Carry Concealed Weapon (CCW) License may carry in a car and on a public street. (Cal Pen. Code Section 26170)
2) Crab Orchard, TN, 9/11/13 The shooters killed a woman and three teenagers. The victims’ bodies were discovered in a car parked along the side of the road in the Renegade Mountain resort community near Crossville.
· Concealed carry is generally allowed in Tennessee (Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1314)
3) Oak Creek, WI, 8/5/12 The shooter killed six people at a Sikh temple and injured three others, including a responding police officer, before killing himself.
· Wisconsin state law permits people to carry their guns in temples and other places of worship unless there is a sign or they have been personally notified that carrying firearms is prohibited by the property owner or occupant. (2011 Wis. Sess. Laws 668)
· Amardeep Kaleka, whose father founded the temple and was killed, confirmed that there was no sign banning firearms, refuting an erroneous report in Fox News.
4) Boston, MA, 9/28/10 The shooters killed four and wounded one.
· Any person holding the appropriate license could lawfully carry a firearm in this area. (MA Gen. Law Chapter 140, Section 131)
· As of 2012 there were 227,612 concealed weapons permit holders in Massachusetts, and neither state or local law prohibits them from carrying in the city of Boston.
5) Buffalo, NY, 8/14/10 The shooter opened fire on a group of people outside a bar, killing four and wounding four others.
· There are an estimated 100,000 concealed weapon permit holders in New York and other than limiting a person’s ability to carry when he is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, Buffalo does not add any additional requirements to state law. (City of Buffalo General Legislation § 180-1)
6) Mount Airy, NC, 11/1/09 The shooter killed four people on the street outside of a television store before eventually surrendering to the police.
· Any person holding an appropriate license can lawfully carry a concealed weapon in public in North Carolina. There are more than 250,0000 concealed weapons permit holders in North Carolina. (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-415.11)
In many other cases -- the shootings in Medford, NY and Northridge, CA, for example -- there's simply no evidence to support Lott's claim that these locations were gun-free zones, other than his claim that because these areas have relatively few concealed carry permit holders that the entire region should be somehow considered a gun-free zone. And as you say, the burden of proof is on Lott to prove that these locations are indeed gun-free.
And as I pointed out, narrowing the definition of "gun-free zone" to exclude locations where armed police were stationed does not make sense. If, as John Lott claims, gunmen target places where they won't confront anyone with a gun -- a claim that has been disproven -- then why would they attack locations where armed law enforcement officers are assigned, like the Navy Yard for example?
4:39 p.m.
There was one shooting in a non-gun-free zone which we've changed in our latest update of the report. The shooting in Hialeah, FL in 2010.