Howard Nemerov: The Man Behind The Numbers

By Chris Chumita

Howard Nemerov is the author of the book Four Hundred Years Of Gun Control...Why Isn't It Working? and numerous pro-gun articles. Over the past few years, his research has given gun owners the ammunition necessary to intelligently argue that gun control does not make society safer and exposed the lies behind the gun-grabber’s statistics. Despite his contributions to the gun rights movement, a majority of gun owners may not be familiar with his name, or with the depth of his work.

Howard Nemerov is a healthcare researcher and the developer of a neuromuscular therapy that is used in rehabilitation called the Nemerov Method. He currently has offices in Texas and California. When considering his accomplishments in the rehabilitation and research fields, it is surprising to learn that he is mostly self-taught. However, he was a horticulture major in college and he was also a software engineer. Nemerov resides in Texas with his wife, and is not “related” to the poet with the same name.

It was his early experience in the rehabilitation field that shaped Nemerov’s initial support of total civilian disarmament. His associates were peacenik types that held the common belief that guns just cause injury and death, and felt therefore that there was no legitimate reason for the civilian ownership of guns. Nemerov saw no reason to hold a different opinion.

As stated earlier, Nemerov is not yet a well known name in the gun rights movement. However, the story of how he went from being a supporter of civilian disarmament to being a staunch supporter of gun rights is one of the few stories about Nemerov that is discussed in the gun rights community. According to the story––even repeated on this web site––Nemerov studied gun control to prove that gun control worked, but changed his mind once he saw the results of his research. It turns out that story is inaccurate.

It was actually one of his patients who slowly started to change Nemerov’s mind when it came to gun control. Nemerov said that he had the utmost respect for his patient, who was a police officer and a former member of the Special Forces. The patient and Nemerov would often discuss politics during their sessions and the patient was often vocal about his pro-gun stance. Nemerov felt that if someone that he respected had a totally different view on gun control, then there must be more to the issue and decided to research it.

To conduct his research, Nemerov decided to only use statistics from Healthcare organizations, government sources, and gun control organizations. For his initial study, he decided to purposely discard any data that came directly from pro-gun organizations such as the Second Amendment Foundation, the Gun Owners of America, and the National Rifle Association.

The result of his research changed his mind on the issue. The research showed that there was no reliable evidence showing that gun control decreased violent crime, but that much of the data showed that higher levels of gun ownership and Right-to-Carry laws corresponded with decreased violent crime. It also showed how the antigun organizations’ own statistics proved how ineffective gun control really is.

Now, Nemerov has a totally different view on gun control and is a member of four pro-gun organizations. He now supports the civilian ownership of guns for self-defense, hunting, target shooting, and for all other purposes. He sees gun control as a liberty issue and feels that too much power is given to the government if they can regulate guns. He now owns one gun for target shooting and self-defense.

Nemerov is concerned about what he sees as the biggest threat to gun ownership. It is not B. Hussein Obama, Sarah Brady, or the United Nations. It is us, the gun owners. He feels that gun rights organizations, and some of their members, spend too much time fighting amongst ourselves instead of focusing on the real issue: protecting our Second Amendment rights. He also feels that gun owners do not reach out to non-gun owners enough. When we do, we often make it a political debate that makes people defensive and not open to other points of view.

It sometimes appears that Nemerov is the lone person in the medical research field that is vocal about their pro-gun views. Several successful business professionals warned Nemerov that publishing pro-gun research under his real name may make it hard for him to market the Nemerov Method to the rabidly anti-gun medical community. Nemerov considered their advice, but decided to use his real name.

So far, no businesses have refused to work with him, but a student did refuse to study with him due to his pro-gun stance. Only one patient has mentioned reading his work on the internet, but did not make any other comments, and has referred other patients to Nemerov since then.

Nemerov plans on continuing his work and will eventually write a follow-up book to his outstanding first book, Four Hundred Years Of Gun Control...Why Isn't It Working? In the meantime, he will continue to write articles that will be picked up by numerous pro-gun websites, including the Buckeye Firearms Association web site. He will also be published this fall with David Kopel and Carl Moody in a University of Texas law journal.

Howard Nemerov has already made some great contributions to the gun rights movement, and will continue to fight for our Second Amendment rights. Hopefully you now know more about the man behind the numbers.

Some of Howard Nemerov's recent articles:

Gun Control: Using Children for Political Ends

Concealed Handguns: Danger or Asset to Ohio?

Gun Control: Brady Anti-CCW Campaign Continues

Brady Campaign and the New Math

Does the UN Protect Women’s Rights?

Buy a copy of Four Hundred Years Of Gun Control...Why Isn't It Working? You can read the Buckeye Firearms Association's review of the book here.