Would More Guns Stop Mass Shootings?

By Fusion Staff  |  November 21, 2013 | 10:37pm
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Will more guns on the street cause violent crime to drop? That’s what economist John Lott believes.

Lott, who opposes more restrictive gun laws, says that the Newtown, Conn. and Virginia Tech massacres could have been prevented if there were armed bystanders on the scene.

“I think they would have been stopped very quickly,” he said during an interview with Fusion’s Jorge Ramos.

Katherine Seymour disagrees. She’s a recent graduate of Virginia Tech who organized a petition effort earlier this year designed to spark Congress to pass new gun laws.

She believes that if students or teachers were armed, it could result in more violence and death.

“To me it’s not about the number of firearms. It’s about who’s obtaining these firearms,” she said. “In reality, rarely would those professors have the training—or rarely would those students have the training to be able to protect themselves.”

Watch the debate tonight on “AMERICA with Jorge Ramos” on Fusion at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday.

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