To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
Here's something for Matt to add to his already-comprehensive list of articles
on gun control... In today's Outlook (should really have been in the A
section)...
-Declan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-05/30/160l-053099-idx.html
UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM: New facts and hot stats from the social sciences
Guns and Gun Massacres: A Contrary View By Richard Morin
Sunday, May 30, 1999; Page B05
Talk about timing.
A month after the massacre in Littleton, Colo., and not even a week after six
students were shot at a Georgia high school, economist John R. Lott Jr. of the
University of Chicago appeared at a conference to argue that there are good
reasons for more people to have more guns.
Specifically, Lott and colleague William M. Landes, a law school professor at
Chicago, say their research has led them to conclude that allowing people to
carry concealed weapons dramatically reduces the occurrence and the
severity of multiple-victim shootings.
Most experts find those assertions counterintuitive. Some dismiss them as
ridiculous. As you might expect, gun advocates embrace Lott and Landes's
findings, and gun opponents pillory them. In reply, Lott says: "Just look at
the evidence"--which is exactly what his doubters and critics say they're
doing.
Lott and Landes base their claims on a statistical analysis of multiple-victim
shootings that occurred between 1977 and 1995 in the United States. They
focused on shootings in public places "where the point of the attack was to
produce carnage," Lott told a conference at the American Enterprise Institute
here.
[...]
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
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