CPRC was founded by Dr. John R. Lott, Jr., an economist and a world recognized expert on guns and crime. Lott has held research or teaching positions at various academic institutions including the University of Chicago, Yale University, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, and Rice University, and was the chief economist at the United States Sentencing Commission during 1988-1989. He is currently a Fox News columnist. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from UCLA. Lott is a prolific author for both academic and popular publications. He has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals and written eight books, including “More Guns, Less Crime,” “The Bias Against Guns,” and “Freedomnomics.” His most recent book is “Dumbing Down the Courts: How politics keeps the smartest judges off the bench.” Nobel laureate Milton Friedman noted: “John Lott has few equals as a perceptive analyst of controversial public policy issues.” He has been one of the most productive and cited economists in the world (during 1969 to 2000 he ranked 26th worldwide in terms of quality adjusted total academic journal output, 4th in terms of total research output, and 86th in terms of citations). Among economics, business and law professors his research is currently the 25th most downloaded in the world. He is also a frequent writer of op-eds.