Prominent gun advocate John Lott blamed a robbery victim who was shot in the back for his injuries, claiming the man displayed “passive behavior” because he fled his attacker.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Christopher Sanna was shot after being robbed while walking to his car following a St. Louis Cardinals game, and is likely to be paralyzed. Army veteran Sanna was wounded when he and his girlfriend fled two robbers after complying with their demands:

Christopher Sanna had parked at the Old Cathedral parking lot and was waking to his car. According to police, two men in a dark-colored sedan drove up to them. The driver got out with a gun and demanded their property. The woman gave the gunman her purse, and the couple turned to run away. The gunman fired several shots in their direction, hitting Sanna in the back.

“They turned to run away, but they didn't make it very far,” Candis Sanna said. "As soon as they gave them the stuff, they were going to try to run away but he shot them. They were within arm's reach.

Sanna's mother told the Post-Dispatch that her son is always “very aware of his surroundings,” but that the robbery “happened so fast.”

In a blog post headlined, “Passive behavior probably leaves robbery victim paralyzed,” Lott criticized Sanna on his website and on Twitter:

Lott is a well-known pro-gun advocate and frequent source of conservative misinformation about gun violence. He rose to prominence during the 1990s with the publication of his book, More Guns, Less Crime, although his conclusion that permissive gun laws reduce crime rates was later debunked by academics who found serious flaws in his research. (Reputable research indicates that permissive concealed carry laws do not reduce crime and may actually increase the occurrence of aggravated assault.)

Lott's claim follows a growing trend among gun rights activists to blame victims of violent crimes for not properly defending themselves. Most notably, several commentators blamed the victims of the June massacre at an historically African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina for their own deaths.

Besides the offensive nature of Lott's claim -- that crime victims are responsible for getting hurt -- research on what typically happens during a violent crime debunks Lott's thesis that behaving “passive[ly]” makes a crime victim more vulnerable to harm.

According to a recent study in The Journal of Preventive Medicine, 4.1 percent of crime victims were injured after brandishing a firearm compared to 2.4 percent of victims who ran away or hid.