Statements by John R. Lott, Jr. on Defensive Gun Brandishing

compiled by Otis Dudley Duncan and Tim Lambert
revised 23 Oct 2005 by Tim Lambert

Note: With the exception of academic publications, some tapes and some found by LexisNexis search, these were found on the Internet. The web is, of course, not perfectly reliable, and items appearing there can later disappear. This approximately chronological listing is probably incomplete, and we welcome additions and corrections.

This page documents how often Lott has made the false claim that 98% of with-gun defences involve merely brandishing the gun. A summary and the latest update on the controversy is here.

"polls of American citizens undertaken by organizations like the Los Angeles Times and Gallup showing that Americans defend themselves with guns between 764,000 and 3.6 million times each year, with the vast majority of cases simply involving people brandishing a gun to prevent attack."
Does Allowing Law-Abiding Citizens to Carry Concealed Handguns Save Lives? Valparaiso University Law Review, 31(2): 355-63, Spring, 1997. [The same passage also appears in: John R. Lott Jr "Concealed Handgun Laws Can Save Lives" Agenda 3(4): 499-503, 1996]

"There are surveys that have been done by the Los Angeles Times, Gallup, Roper, Peter Hart, about 15 national survey organizations in total that range from anything from 760,000 times a year to 3.6 million times a year people use guns defensively. About 98 percent of those simply involve people brandishing a gun and not using them."
Page 41, State of Nebraska, Committee on Judiciary LB465, February 6, 1997, statement of John Lott, Transcript prepared by the Clerk of the Legislature, Transcriber's Office.

"When victims are attacked, 98 percent of the time merely brandishing a gun is enough to cause the criminal to stop his attack."
John R. Lott, Jr., Packing protection, Letters, Chicago Sun-Times, April 30, 1997, Pg. 52

"Considerable evidence supports the notion that permitted handguns deter criminals. Polls show that there are at least 760,000 and possibly as many as 3.6 million defensive uses of guns per year. In 98% of the cases, people simply brandish weapons to stop attacks."
Unraveling Some Brady Law Falsehoods Los Angeles Times July 2, 1997 By John R. Lott Jr.

Other research shows that guns clearly deter criminals. Polls by the Los Angeles Times, Gallup and Peter Hart Research Associates show that there are at least 760,000, and possibly as many as 3.6 million, defensive uses of guns per year. In 98% of the cases, such polls show, people simply brandish the weapon to stop an attack."
John R. Lott Jr., Childproof Gun Locks: Bound to Misfire, Wall Street Journal, July 19, 1997 Wall St. J. A22

"If national surveys are correct, 98 percent of the time that people use guns defensively, they merely have to brandish a weapon to break off an attack."
More Guns, Less Crime (University of Chicago Press, 1998), p. 3. [Date of publication, May, 1998.]

"People use guns defensively about 2.5 million times each year, and 98% of the time simply brandishing the weapon is enough to stop an attack."
Will Suing Gun Manufacturers Save Lives? By John R. Lott, Jr. Investor's Business Daily May 27, 1998

"It has been shown that 98 percent of the time the only thing a person has to do is brandish the gun and the criminal flees."
Interview with John Lott Jr., The Dallas Morning News May 31, 1998.

"Americans use guns defensively about 2.5 million times a year, and 98% of the time merely brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
Keep guns out of lawyers hands, Wall Street Journal, June 23, 1998.

"The media understandably play up graphic gun attacks by outlaws. They can't easily show us the vastly more common cases numbering in the hundreds of thousands to millions each year where law-abiding citizens brandish a gun and cause criminals to flee (as they do 98 percent of the time)."
How to Stop Mass Shootings, The American Enterprise, July/August 1998.

"Polls by the Los Angeles Times, Gallup and Peter Hart Associates show that there are at least 760,000, and possibly as many as 3.6 million, defensive uses of guns per year. In 98 percent of the cases, such polls show, people simply brandish the weapon to stop an attack."
Gun-Lock Proposal Bound to Misfire, Chicago Tribune, August 6, 1998.

"Other research shows guns clearly deter criminals. Polls by the Los Angeles Times, Gallup, and Peter Hart Research Associates show there are at least 760,000, and possibly as many as 3.6 million, defensive uses of guns per year. In 98 percent of the cases, such polls show, people simply brandish the weapon to stop an attack."
John Lott, Commentary: Gun Locks That are Bound to Misfire, August 14, 1998, Washington Times (D.C.) A17.

"People use guns defensively about 2.5 million times a year, and 98 percent of the time merely brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
John R. Lott Jr., Letters, American Bar Association Journal, October, 1998

"Also ignored is that 98% of the time when people use a gun defensively, merely brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack. In less than 1% of the cases is a gun even fired directly at the attacker."
Gun Control Advocates Purvey Deadly Myths, Wall Street Journal Nov. 11, 1998.

"Ninety-eight percent of the time, when people use guns defensively, simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to go and cause a criminal to run away."
John Lott on Uncommon Knowledge "Farewell To Arms? Gun Control" Film Date: November 13, 1998

"Americans use guns defensively more than 2 million times a year and 98 percent of the time merely brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
Will Suing Gun makers Endanger Lives? Chicago Tribune, Nov. 17, 1998.

"Americans also use guns defensively about 2.5 million times a year, and 98% of the time merely brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
Cities Target Gun Makers in Bogus Lawsuits,. Los Angeles Times, Dec. 1, 1998.

"If national surveys are correct, 98% of the time that people use guns defensively, they merely have to brandish a weapon to break off an attack."
Will More Guns Mean Less Crime? Consumers' Research Magazine, Dec 1998 v81 #12 p18 [this article consists of excerpts from More Guns, Less Crime].

"Americans use guns defensively more than two million times a year, and 98 per cent of the time merely brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
National Review, Dec 21, 1998 p46(1) Gun Shy: Cities turn from regulation to litigation in their campaign against guns. (product liability suits in Chicago and New Orleans) John R. Lott Jr..

"There have been sixteen national surveys, everything from the Los Angeles Times, to Gallup, Gary Kleck from Florida State University, which show that over two million times a year people use guns defensively. The vast majority of times (98%) they merely have to brandish a gun and that is sufficient to cause the criminal to break off the attack."
Interview with John Lott on NRA live, 25 December 1998.

At 14:30, John states that "98% of the time" defensive use of a gun does not involve discharge: "Simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to cause a criminal to break off an attack."
Further, at 14:57, he states, "less than 2% of the time is the gun fired, and only in a fraction of that is the gun directed/fired AT the criminal."
Talk by John Lott in Minnesota on January 27, 1999. Transcribed from an audio tape.

"overwhelming majority of times simply brandishing the gun is sufficient to cause the criminal to break off the attack and run away."
Joint Crime Prevention Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Minnesota, Hearing on Conceal Carry Firearms. Feb 19 1999. Transcribed from a video tape

"More than 450,000 crimes, including 10,744 murders, are committed with guns each year. But Americans also use guns defensively about 2.5 million time a year, and 98 percent of the time merely brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
Bogus lawsuits a crime against gun-owning public --> "Indeed, about 450,000 crimes, including 10,744 murders, were committed with guns in 1996. But Americans also use guns defensively over 2 million times a year and 98 percent of the time merely brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
"Lethal handgun fears" (review of Making a Killing by John R. Lott, Jr. Washington Times Feb 24 1999

"Potential victims use guns more than two million times a year to stop violent crimes; 98% of the time simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to stop an attack."
Gun Laws Can Be Dangerous, Too, Wall Street Journal May 12, 1999.

"Potential victims use guns more than two million times a year to stop violent crimes; 98% of the time simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to stop an attack."
John R. Lott, Jr. Gun Regulations Can Cost Lives (Testimony before the House Judiciary Committee May 27, 1999)

"Potential victims use guns more than 2 million times a year to stop violent crimes; 98 percent of the time simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to stop an attack. Crimes are stopped with guns about five times as frequently as crimes are committed with guns."
John R. Lott Jr "Q: Would new requirements for gun buyers save lives? No: New gun controls will pose greater dangers to persons threatened" Insight on the News June 21 1999 v15 i23 p24(4).

"Sixteen national surveys from organizations like the Los Angeles Times , CNN, Gallup, and Peter Hart and Associates, as well as several universities indicate that at least 2 million times a year, people use guns defensively to prevent crime. ... you find that 98 percent of the time, simply being able to brandish a gun defensively is sufficient to cause a criminal to break off an attack. The gun is fired less than 2 percent of the time, and only seldom fired directly at the criminal."
John R. Lott Jr More Guns, Less Crime American Experiment Quarterly vol 2 no 2 Summer 1999 11-21

[Editor's note: In an April 2003 document Lott makes a comment on this quote: "based on a January 1999 talk, note the sixteen surveys have to include mine to get to that number". In fact, Kleck lists 12 national surveys. Adding another survey would give 13. In his reply to Duncan Lott claims that by including his own survey he gets to 15 national surveys.]

"98% of the time when people use guns defensively simply brandishing a gun [is] sufficient to cause a criminal break off an attack. In less than 2% of the time is the gun fired. Most of those are warning shots. Less then one half of one percent of the time is the gun fired at the attacker. And only one out of every thousand times that people use guns defensively does it result in the death of the attacker. In the vast majority of these times simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to make a criminal break off an attack and run away."
John Lott on NPR's "Justice Talking" June 28, 1999 Quote is at time 55:25 in the audio

"It is true that more than 430,000 crimes, including more than 9,000 murders, were committed with guns in 1997. But Americans also use guns defensively about 2 million times a year, and merely brandishing the weapon was sufficient to stop an attack 98% of the time."
"Should We Sue the Lawyers?" by John R. Lott Jr. Intellectual Capital August 5-12, 1999 Vol 4 Issue 31.

"Also ignored is that 98 percent of the time when people use a gun defensively, merely brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack. In less than 1 percent of the cases is a gun even fired directly at the attacker."
Debunking gun myths By John R. Lott Jr. August 8, 1999 Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana

"People used guns defensively to stop violent crimes over 2 million times in 1997. 98 percent of the time, when people use guns defensively, simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to cause a criminal to break off an attack. In less than 2 percent of the time is the gun fired. About three-quarters of those are warning shots."
Oral statement, paraphrased, TV show, Hardball, CNBC, August 18, 1999. [Video tape obtained from www.burrelles.com.]

[Paraphrase of statements in a video taped lecture] Lott contrasts the number of violent crimes committed with guns with the number of defensive uses. He gives 1997 as the date for his figures: 2 million times a gun is used defensively and 98% of the time simply brandishing the gun is sufficient to cause the criminal to break off the attack. Later in the lecture Lott states that less than 1 time in 1,000 does the defensive use result in the death of the attacker. Again he says that 98% of the time simply brandishing the gun is sufficient to stop the attack, in "less than 2%" of the cases is the gun fired, and the firings are mostly warning shots. In less than 0.5% of the uses the gun is fired at the offender, and only a tiny fraction of these result in the death of the attacker.
"Do We Need the Second Amendment?" Eagle Council Forum XXVIII, September 24-26, 1999. [Video tape obtained from ACTS, Inc.]

"Guns clearly deter criminals, with Americans using guns defensively over 2 million times each year -- five times more frequently than the 430,000 times guns were used to commit crimes in 1997, according to research by Florida State University criminologist Gary Kleck. Kleck's study of defensive gun uses found that ninety-eight percent of the time simply brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
John Lott Gun Locks: Bound to Misfire Intellectual Ammunition, Mar 1, 2000. (The same article was also published on the Independence Institute's Op-Ed page on Feb 9, 2000)

[Editor's note: In March 2003, the sentence "Kleck's study of defensive gun uses found that ninety-eight percent of the time simply brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack." was deleted from Lott's article. Also, the Independence Institute's copy of the article was deleted. Lott claims that the Kleck attribution in this quote was erroneously made by Kopel. Discussion is here.]

"Guns clearly deter criminals, with Americans using guns defensively more than 2 million times each year -- five times more frequently than the 430,000 times guns were used to commit crimes in 1997. Some 98 percent of the time, simply brandishing a weapon is sufficient to stop the attack."
John Lott February 13 2000 Rocky Mountain News

"Guns clearly deter criminals. Americans use guns defensively more than 2 million times each year -- five times more frequently than the 430,000 times guns were used to commit crimes in 1997. Ninety-eight percent of the time, simply brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
Gun locks will cost, not save, lives in Maryland, Illinois Firearm Resource Feb. 25, 2000, Baltimore Sun.

"Guns clearly deter criminals, with Americans using guns defensively over 2 million times each year -- five times more frequently than the 430,000 times guns were used to commit crimes in 1997. 98 percent of the time simply brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
Gun Locks Bound to Misfire, New York Post, March 20, 2000.

"98% of the time when people use guns defensively, simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to cause a criminal to break off an attack. In less than 2% of the time is the gun fired, and most of those -- about three-quarters of those -- are warning shots."
John Lott at a taping of a TV pilot hosted by John Stossel April 2000 Link

John Lott, Jr. was the speaker after lunch. Lott is an economist and a Yale research scholar. He is the author of the book More Guns, Less Crime. He said that guns are used two million times per year to thwart crimes, and 98% of the time shots are never fired.
Report on Libertarian Party of New York's convention on April 29 2000.

"In 1997, for example, while people used guns to commit crimes about 440,000 times (with over 9,000 of those being murders), few Americans would guess that our best estimates indicate that guns were used defensively about two million times. Simply being able to brandish a gun was sufficient 98 percent of the time to cause a criminal to break off an attack."
Talk by John Lott to the Independent Women's Forum, May 2000

"If a national survey that I conducted is correct, 98 percent of the time that people use guns defensively, they merely have to brandish a weapon to break off an attack."
More Guns, Less Crime, second edition (University of Chicago Press, 2000), p. 3. [Publication date, May, 2000]

"Guns clearly deter criminals, with Americans using guns defensively more than 2 million times each year - five times more frequently than the 430,000 times guns were used to commit crimes in 1997. Ninety-eight percent of the time simply brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
Gun locks may increase crime June 2, 2000. Detroit News By John R. Lott, Jr.

Early on the first side Lott mentions that about 2 million times a year people defend themselves with guns, which is 5 times as many as the number of times guns are used to commit crimes. About two-thirds of the way through the second side, Lott says "less than one out of every thousand times that people use guns defensively is the attacker killed. I would say that the best estimates that we have indicate that people, when they use guns defensively, 98% of the time simply being able to brandish a gun is sufficient to cause a criminal to break off an attack. In the 2% where the weapons are fired, most of those are warning shots. You have something like one-half of one percent or so where the gun is fired directly at the attacker, and a lot of those miss. Even when they do hit, most of those are wounds. Woundings are about 8 to 1 the ratio at which attackers are killed."
"Dr. Stan with John Lott. More guns, less crime?" Radio Liberty, August 1, 2000, 4 PM. Cassette tape of broadcast obtained from www.radioliberty.com. You can listen to this quote here.

"Ninety-eight percent of the time, simply being able to brandish a gun is sufficient to cause a criminal to break off an attack and the two percent of the time when guns are fired, the vast majority of those are warning shots. It's something like less than one-half-of-one percent of the time is the gun fired in the direction of the attacker. Even when they do hit, woundings are much more frequent than times when the attacker is killed."
John Lott, radio interview on "The Zoh Show" August 2000

"studies by respected institutions estimate that guns were used defensively about 2 million times. Simply brandishing a gun was sufficient 98 percent of the time to cause a criminal to break off an attack."
One case for guns,Christian Science Monitor, August 21, 2000.

"As I told Duncan last year in a telephone conversation, I had no idea why the estimated 2.5 million defensive gun uses was attributed to me. The 2.5 million estimate obviously comes from Kleck. The about 2 million reference is the average of the 15 national surveys and is very similar to my own estimate of a little over 2 million defensive uses. The survey that I oversaw interviewed 2,424 people from across the United States. It was done in large part to see for myself whether the estimates put together by other researchers (such as Gary Kleck) were accurate. The estimates that I obtained implied about 2.1 million defensive gun uses, a number somewhat lower than Kleck's. However I also found a significantly higher percentage of them (98 percent) involved simply brandishing a gun. My survey was conducted over 3 months during 1997. I had planned on including a discussion of it in my book, but did not do so because an unfortunate computer crash lost my hard disk right before the final draft of the book had to be turned in."
John R. Lott, Jr's Reply to Otis Duncan's Recent article in The Criminologist, The Criminologist, vol. 25, no. 5, September/October 2000, page 6.

"Only one out of every 1,000 times that people use guns effectively is the attacker killed. About 98% of the time simply brandishing a gun is sufficient cause for the criminal to break off his attack. Less than 2% of the time the weapon is fired, and most of those are just warning shots."
John Lott. Talk at 2000 Gun Rights Policy Conference September 30, 2000

"Possibly because of such news coverage, few realize that Americans use guns defensively about 2 million times each year -- five times as frequently as the 430,000 times guns were used to commit crimes in 1997. Up to ninety-eight percent of the time, simply brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
When Gun Control Costs Lives. John Lott Jr. National Forum, Fall 2000 v80 #4 p29.

"Less than one of every thousand times that people use guns defensively is the attacker killed. Ninety-eight percent of the time, surveys indicate that up to 98% of the time simply brandishing [a] gun is sufficient to make a criminal break off an attack. And in only about one and a half percent of the time is a warning shot fired. And in about half of one percent of the time is the gun fired in the direction of the attacker and a lot of those miss. Woundings are extremely rare but even they exceed killing of attackers by about an eight to one ratio."
John Lott speech at Sioux Falls City Club, 25 Oct 2000
Broadcast on South Dakota Public Radio
At time 26:30 in the speech Link

"Simply having a gun is by far the safest thing for victims to do. In up to 98 percent of the cases simply brandishing the gun is sufficient to cause the criminal to break off the attack."
What can be done to stop hate crimes? San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 23, 2001.

"Men who behave passively are 1.4 times more likely to end up being seriously injured than men who have a gun. For women, passive behavior is 2.5 times more likely to lead to serious injury than resisting with a gun. In up to 98 percent of the cases simply brandishing the gun is sufficient to repel the criminal."
John R. Lott Jr., Self-defense may be best crime deterrent, The Boston Herald, March 10, 2001.

"Few people realize that civilians use guns defensively to stop about 2 million crimes a year, five times more often than guns are used to commit crimes, according to national surveys. In fact, in 98% of the cases, simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to stop a crime. Research at Florida State University and at the University of Chicago indicates that only one out of 1,000 defensive gun uses results in the attacker's death."
LA Times Friday, March 30, 2001
Others Fear Being Placed at the Mercy of Criminals
by John Lott Jr.

"Few people realize that civilians use guns defensively to stop about 2 million crimes a year, five times more often than guns are used to commit crimes, according to national surveys. ... In fact, in 98 percent of all cases, simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to stop a crime."
John R. Lott, Jr., Tell about when guns save lives, Dallas Morning News, April 10, 2001.

"Guns clearly deter criminals, with Americans using guns defensively over 2 million times each year -- five times more frequently than the 430,000 times guns were used to commit crimes in 1997. Ninety-eight percent of the time simply brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
Gun Lock Law Endangers Families, Independence Feature Syndicate Opinion-Editorial, Independence Institute, March 28, 2001. [This passage, almost verbatim, was also referenced on the net as having been published in Cost of gun locks too high, Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2, 2001.]

"Guns clearly deter criminals. Americans use guns defensively over 2 million times each year -- five times more frequently than the 430,000 times guns were used to commit crimes in 1997. Up to 98 percent of the time, simply brandishing the weapon is sufficient to stop an attack."
John R. Lott Jr., Why safe storage laws, gun locks likely will backfire. The San Diego Union-Tribune June 7, 2001.

"In fact, in up to 98% of the cases, simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to stop a crime. Fewer than one out of 1,000 defensive gun uses results in the attacker's death."
John R. Lott, Jr., Small Arms Save Lives, The Wall Street Journal Europe, July 30, 2001.

"Few people realize that civilians use guns defensively, not just against dogs, but to stop about 2 million crimes a year -- five times more often than guns are used to commit crimes, according to national surveys. ... But research indicates that fewer than one out of 1,000 defensive uses of a gun results in the attackers death. In up to 98 percent of the cases, simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to stop a crime."
Gun News You Never See, New York Post, August 6, 2001.

"Research indicates that fewer than one out of 1,000 defensive gun uses results in the attacker's death. In up to 98 percent of the cases,simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to stop a crime. And that provides no emotionally gripping picture to make the story newsworthy."
Fighting fire with firepower, Chicago Sun-Times August 10, 2001 Friday

"Nor are permit holders vigilantes. Up to 98 percent of defensive gun uses simply involve people brandishing their weapon. It is only as a last resort that people fire their weapon and even most of firings are merely warning shots."
Israeli Homeland Security Tips New York Post, November 12, 2001.

"Up to 98 percent of defensive gun uses simply involve people brandishing their weapon."
Yes:Armed citizens can make it more difficult for attackers, The Detroit News December 30, 2001

"Kellermann assumes that the only benefit from using a gun defensively occurs when the attacker is killed. In fact, in fewer than 1 out of a thousand defensive gun use cases is the attacker killed. The 98 percent of the time that guns are simply brandished are ignored. Warning shots are ignored."
Mary Rosh, posting to soc.retirement on Jan 1, 2002

"the survey I conducted during the fall of 2002 indicates that simply brandishing a gun stops crimes 95 percent of the time, and other surveys have also found high rates."
John Lott, The Bias Against Guns, p 24 Regnery, March 2003.

"Overall the survey results here are similar to one I conducted primarily during January 1997 which identified 2.1 million defensive gun uses, and that in 98 percent of them, the gun was simply brandished."
John Lott, The Bias Against Guns, p 259-260 Regnery, March 2003.

Combining my two surveys together (with their 98 and 95 percent estimates) does produce a statistically significantly different result from the National Survey of Private Ownership of Firearms with a single-tailed t-statistic of 2.4.
John Lott, What Surveys Can Help Us Understand About Guns? March 2003.

"Given that about 95% of the time that people use guns defensively, simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to cause a criminal to break off an attack."
John Lott, on the KEZI Watercooler, April 8, 2003

"Something like 95% of the time or so simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to go and cause a criminal to break off an attack."
John Lott, speaking on Radio Liberty on April 10, 2003.

"I think it's obvious that if you have a crime with a gun there's a dead body on the ground. It doesn't have to be a mass shooting, I mean you have just one person killed, many of these stories involve just that. That that's more newsworthy than, let's say, a women brandishes a gun, a would be attacker runs away, no shots are fired, no dead body on the ground, no crime actually committed. And given that about 95% or so of the time people use guns defensively that's the type of defensive gun use case you are talking about."
John Lott, speaking on the Glenn Mitchell show on KERA 90.1, April 15, 2003.

"In 2001, according to government survey evidence, there were about 450,000 crimes that were committed with guns. Of those, there were about 8,000 gun murders. Yet our best estimates indicate that last year Americans also used guns defensively, a little bit over 2 million times a year. Ninety-five percent or so of the time, simply brandishing a gun was sufficient to stop an attack."
John Lott, speaking at American Enterpise Institute panel discussion on The Bias Against Guns, May 19, 2003.

Ninety-five percent or so of the time that people use guns defensively, simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to make a criminal break off an attack."
John Lott, speaking on American Family Radio, June 10, 2003.

In 2001, according to government survey evidence, there were about 450,000 crimes that were committed with guns. Of those, there were about 8,000 gun murders. But few probably realize that our best estimates indicate that last year Americans also used guns defensively, a little bit over 2 million times a year. Ninety-five percent or so of the time, simply brandishing a gun was sufficient to stop an attack.
John R. Lott, in an interview on the "Strike the Root" website, June 11 2003.

But the more than 2 million times each year that Americans use guns defensively are never discussed. In more than 90% of those cases, simply brandishing a weapon is sufficient to cause a criminal to break off an attack.
John R. Lott Jr., Letting Teachers Pack Guns Will Make America's Schools Safer Los Angeles Times, July 13 2003

[Van Doorn] was wrong that I attributed my survey work to other researchers.
And there is nothing "inexplicably revised" regarding my survey estimates. I now state that 95 percent of defensive gun uses involve simple brandishing, rather than the 98 percent reported earlier, because I now have a new survey, conducted almost six years after the first one.
John R. Lott Jr, Letter, The Columbus Dispatch, July 26 2003

It has been estimated that when people use guns defensively, 90 percent of the time they stop the criminals simply by brandishing the gun.
John R. Lott Jr., Lottery Numbers Why don't media cover the good-news stories about guns? Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug 01 2003

The claim that there was something "funny" regarding the slightly different survey estimates is also false. I cited that 95 percent of defensive gun uses involving simple brandishing rather than 98 percent because a new survey was conducted almost six years after the first one.
John R. Lott Jr., Letter, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Aug 13 2003

In 2002, some 90 percent of the time when people used guns defensively, they stopped the criminals simply by brandishing the gun.
John R. Lott Jr., Guns, Crime, and Health, World and I, Oct 2003 v18 i10 p32

Guns clearly deter criminals, with Americans using guns defensively over 2 million times each year---4.5 times more frequently than the 500,000 times guns were used to commit crimes in 2001. Over 90 percent of the time simply brandishing the weapon stops an attack.
John R. Lott Jr., Bound to Misfire,Tech Central Station, Nov 7 2003

"Given that 95% or so of the time that people use guns defensively simply brandishing it is sufficient to cause a criminal to break off an attack..."
John Lott, speaking on the Jeff Rense Program on Nov 17, 2003.

In 2002, some 90 percent of the time when people used guns defensively, they stopped the criminals simply by brandishing the gun.
John Lott, Why People Fear Guns, Fox News Jan 02, 2004

In 2002, some 90 percent of the time when people used guns defensively, they stopped the criminals simply by brandishing the gun.
John Lott, "What the Media Won't Tell You About Guns", American Rifleman, Mar 1, 2004

95% of the time simply brandishing a gun is sufficient to make a criminal break off an attack.
John Lott speaking on Book TV on The Bias Against Guns, recorded on April 15, 2004

Though my survey indicates that simply brandishing a gun stops crimes 95 percent of the time, it is very rare to see a story of such an event reported in the media.
John Lott speech delivered on May 25, 2004, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Seattle, Washington.

Ninety five per cent of the time people use guns defensively simply brandishing is sufficient to go and cause a criminal to break off an attack.
John Lott debate with John Kessler, Ohio State University, October 26, 2004.

More than 450,000 crimes, including 10,800 murders, were committed with guns in 2002. But Americans also used guns defensively more than two million times that year, and more than 90 percent of the time merely brandishing the weapon was sufficient to stop an attack.
John R. Lott Jr. & Jack Soltysik Suiting Down National Review Online, October 20, 2005