08/25/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BkGhLkh41/
John R. Lott Jr. and the Crime Prevention Research Center do some of the most valuable research in America on guns, crime, self-defense and public safety.
If you care about the Second Amendment—and especially if you care about having actual DATA available when politicians and the media make claims about guns—**follow John Lott and CPRC. Read their work. Share their work. And if you're able, DONATE to CPRC.**
CPRC is a 501(c)(3) research and education organization. CPRC states that it does **not** accept donations from gun manufacturers, am******on manufacturers, the NRA, or organizations on either side of the gun-control debate.
About CPRC:
[https://crimeresearch.org/about/](https://crimeresearch.org/about/)
Donate to CPRC:
[https://crimeresearch.org/donate/](https://crimeresearch.org/donate/)
That makes support from ordinary people who value serious research especially important.
And the research behind THIS post comes directly from **John R. Lott Jr. and the Crime Prevention Research Center.**
Original CPRC research:
[https://crimeresearch.org/2026/07/new-research-murders-in-us-remain-very-concentrated-in-2024-with-the-murders-in-worst-2-of-counties-remaining-at-their-2020-peaks/](https://crimeresearch.org/2026/07/new-research-murders-in-us-remain-very-concentrated-in-2024-with-the-murders-in-worst-2-of-counties-remaining-at-their-2020-peaks/)
The numbers are extraordinary.
Lott's analysis of 2024 murder data found:
**The worst 1% of U.S. counties—just 31 counties—contained about 20% of the population but accounted for 41% of all murders.**
Now expand that to the worst 2%:
**63 counties.
30% of the population.
54% of ALL U.S. murders.**
And the worst 5% of counties?
**71% of the murders.**
Now turn the telescope around.
According to Lott's CPRC research:
# 53% OF AMERICAN COUNTIES
# HAD ZERO MURDERS.
Another 16% had exactly one.
Put those together:
# 69% OF U.S. COUNTIES
# ACCOUNTED FOR ONLY 3%
# OF U.S. MURDERS.
Again, don't take my word for it. **Read Lott's analysis yourself:**
[https://crimeresearch.org/2026/07/new-research-murders-in-us-remain-very-concentrated-in-2024-with-the-murders-in-worst-2-of-counties-remaining-at-their-2020-peaks/](https://crimeresearch.org/2026/07/new-research-murders-in-us-remain-very-concentrated-in-2024-with-the-murders-in-worst-2-of-counties-remaining-at-their-2020-peaks/)
That is an astonishing level of geographic concentration.
And Lott's research goes even deeper: much of the violence within high-murder counties is itself concentrated in relatively small geographic areas.
Think about what that means for gun policy.
America is routinely discussed as though hundreds of millions of Americans are living inside one giant, evenly distributed “gun violence epidemic.”
**The actual murder data show something very different.**
Violence is extraordinarily concentrated.
Yet the political response is so often to impose broader restrictions on the farmer in a county with no murders, the suburban concealed carrier who has never committed a violent crime, the recreational shooter, the hunter, the collector, and millions upon millions of other peaceful gun owners.
Magazine restrictions.
Waiting periods.
Purchase restrictions.
Carry restrictions.
Semi-automatic r***e bans.
Licensing schemes.
Registration proposals.
**Everybody gets regulated because of violence that the data show is massively concentrated somewhere else.**
That should raise an obvious question:
# WHY ARE WE TARGETING GUN OWNERS
# INSTEAD OF TARGETING THE CRIME?
If **69% of American counties collectively account for only 3% of murders**, treating lawful gun owners across those counties as though THEY constitute America's violent-crime problem makes very little sense.
**Good crime policy should follow the criminals.**
Concentrate law-enforcement resources where murders are actually occurring.
Concentrate prosecutors there.
Concentrate gang-intervention resources there.
Concentrate attention on repeat violent offenders there.
Identify the neighborhoods, offenders and criminal networks actually producing the violence.
**Don't turn more than 100 million peaceful American gun owners into the policy target because regulating people who obey the law is easier than dealing with the people who don't.**
And this is exactly why organizations like the **Crime Prevention Research Center matter so much.**
John Lott has spent decades digging into questions that too often get reduced to political slogans:
Where are murders actually occurring?
What happens when citizens legally carry fi****ms?
How frequently are fi****ms used defensively?
What happens after gun laws change?
How do popular political claims compare with the underlying data?
Whether you agree with every conclusion Lott has ever reached or not, **this is exactly the kind of empirical research a serious national gun-policy debate needs.**
So please don't merely take the numbers from this post and move on.
# GO READ JOHN LOTT'S WORK.
Follow him.
Follow the Crime Prevention Research Center.
Share their research.
Send other gun owners to their website.
And if you value having an organization willing to spend the time and money necessary to dig through these datasets, **consider donating directly to CPRC.**
CPRC on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/CrimeResearchNews
CPRC home:
[https://crimeresearch.org/](https://crimeresearch.org/)
CPRC research used for this post:
[https://crimeresearch.org/2026/07/new-research-murders-in-us-remain-very-concentrated-in-2024-with-the-murders-in-worst-2-of-counties-remaining-at-their-2020-peaks/](https://crimeresearch.org/2026/07/new-research-murders-in-us-remain-very-concentrated-in-2024-with-the-murders-in-worst-2-of-counties-remaining-at-their-2020-peaks/)
Support CPRC:
[https://crimeresearch.org/donate/](https://crimeresearch.org/donate/)
**RESEARCH CREDIT: JOHN R. LOTT JR. / CRIME PREVENTION RESEARCH CENTER**
Research and statistical analysis credited to John R. Lott Jr. and the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC).
This Oregon Pro 2A post is independent commentary based on their published research; it was **not produced, sponsored, approved or endorsed by John Lott or CPRC.**
**They did the research. We're helping more people see it.**
**Follow Oregon Pro 2A for unapologetic defense of the Second Amendment and the policies that keep people free.**
