2aguy
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2014
- 112,251
- 52,473
this is an article from a gun guy who has studied the research into concealed carry.....and the work of the expert in the field, Dr. John Lott........
The End of 'Reality-Based' Arguments Against Guns - The Truth About Guns
In the nearly 20 years since that happened, the academic work has advanced…not much at all. To be fair, there were a few pieces of analysis more along the lines of the techniques Lott and Mustard used and mostly published in economics journals. As you might expect, a furious responses and counter-responses lasted for a few years.
Since then, it appears that the science is divided into those studies that find increases in gun availability – especially concealed weapons – lead to lower (particularly violent) crime, and those studies finding no effect either way. It’s these latter studies that should clinch the political case for relaxed gun laws.
Here is why: to take a fairly typical “no-result” paper, when a study refutes the Lott hypothesis (which, simplified, is: more guns means less crime) it will tend to find that there is no effect on crime. It is very unusual to find any papers which find a result opposite of that hypothesis. That is, few studies find more guns mean more crime.
Think about what that means. Either:
More guns do not cause more crime, or else
More guns would cause more crime, except that potential victims have armed themselves, thus effectively deterring the crime.
Now, whichever of these is more likely (hint: it’s B), it should serve as the end of the so-called “reality-based” arguments against guns. There simply isn’t any reason to believe removing guns will reduce crime.
The End of 'Reality-Based' Arguments Against Guns - The Truth About Guns
In the nearly 20 years since that happened, the academic work has advanced…not much at all. To be fair, there were a few pieces of analysis more along the lines of the techniques Lott and Mustard used and mostly published in economics journals. As you might expect, a furious responses and counter-responses lasted for a few years.
Since then, it appears that the science is divided into those studies that find increases in gun availability – especially concealed weapons – lead to lower (particularly violent) crime, and those studies finding no effect either way. It’s these latter studies that should clinch the political case for relaxed gun laws.
Here is why: to take a fairly typical “no-result” paper, when a study refutes the Lott hypothesis (which, simplified, is: more guns means less crime) it will tend to find that there is no effect on crime. It is very unusual to find any papers which find a result opposite of that hypothesis. That is, few studies find more guns mean more crime.
Think about what that means. Either:
More guns do not cause more crime, or else
More guns would cause more crime, except that potential victims have armed themselves, thus effectively deterring the crime.
Now, whichever of these is more likely (hint: it’s B), it should serve as the end of the so-called “reality-based” arguments against guns. There simply isn’t any reason to believe removing guns will reduce crime.
