Censorship is Here: Twitter Just Silenced Gun Researcher John Lott

Do you hate the other side, politically?

In general, the left has made it clear that they truly hate the right, and winning at politics is worth any price. The reverse doesn’t really seem to be true. Conservatives typically show basic respect, tons of patience and unexpected compassion for liberals. The hate really seems to be a one-way street. It’s why there’s no right-wing equivalent to Antifa. It’s also why 100 percent of calls for censorship are coming from the left. Unfortunately, big tech is heeding that call, and it’s getting scary for conservatives. Twitter just silenced one of the most important voices in politics: John Lott.

Who Is John Lott?

Dr. Lott’s name has made some circuits around conservative groups, but a lot of people still don’t know about him. He runs the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), one of the leading research groups that studies guns and gun control. What separates Lott from many of his contemporaries is that he doesn’t use his research to try and create anti-gun propaganda. Instead, he asks considerably different questions from other researchers, and it has led to some interesting conclusions.

Lott is the one who discovered that well over 90 percent of mass shootings (in the U.S.) happen in gun-free zones. He has also helped demonstrate that defensive uses of guns regularly save lives. Most of all, his real research routinely debunks liberal talking points. If you really want to understand the depth of his research, you should consider visiting crimeresearch.org.

The Tweet Heard Round the World

Considering the nature of Lott’s work, it shouldn’t surprise you that he has often been targeted by the left. One of the more extreme examples started a few months ago. In March, he noted the horrific shooting in New Zealand and added it to his list of research inquiries. He also took to Twitter to point out a few things.

You might remember that this particular shooter left behind a substantial manifesto. Because of that manifesto, the left-wing media tried to portray the shooter as a racist right-wing maniac. Only two of those three assertions are true, and Lott mentioned that on Twitter. His tweet read, “[the mosque shooter is] a socialist, environmentalist, who hates capitalists & free trade.” Lott also reminded Twitter followers that the shooter proclaimed his desire to increase gun control in New Zealand.

It’s interesting that such a tweet could be seen as controversial. After all, the killer self-identified as an eco-terrorist whose views mostly align with Mao Zedong and communist China. He also made his intentions on increasing gun control perfectly clear. There’s nothing misleading or out of context in Lott’s statements.

Censorship Forever

Twitter’s response to that tweet was to permanently ban Lott’s account. Lott tried to inquire about the ban, and he was only told that he was banned because of the tweet above. That’s it. There was no mention of violating any terms of service. Lott didn’t use foul language. He didn’t engage in heated arguments. He didn’t threaten or target anyone. His only sin was that he researches gun control and mass shootings, and reported honestly on what he found. He countered the liberal narrative with extremely simple facts, and that was enough to get him kicked off of Twitter forever.

Lott now joins the ranks of James Woods (who quoted Ralph Waldo Emmerson) and countless other conservatives. Twitter is fully committed to silencing conservative voices.

The thing to understand about this particular case is that the left-wing media wanted to push a narrative. The New Zealand shooter was clearly a racist who wanted ethnic cleansing. To the left, that was enough to identify him as a right-wing nut, even though none of his beliefs align with the right. They’re so indoctrinated with their own nonsense that they literally equate conservatism and racism.

In the meantime, the shooter decried capitalism, hates the wealthy, named himself an eco–terrorist, and had a list of demands that reads like an excerpt from the Green New Deal. The left hates the idea that their own ideology aligns so easily with ethnic cleansing, but this shouldn’t surprise anyone.

All left-wing policy essentially amounts to institutionalized racism and mass killing. The New Zealand shooter wasn’t an outlier in his beliefs. The only difference between him and most left-wingers is that he pulled the trigger himself instead of trying to relegate that job to the police.