I want to comment further on the email Lott sent to some bloggers. Lott states that he has been responsive and implies that he was somehow ambushed on this issue.
Duncan first asked Lott for evidence for his survey last June. Lott did not respond. I sent him the first version of my report last September, and regularly sent him updates. He has not responded to any of them. I've tried my best to be open, while Lott has acted like someone with something to hide. For example, this new survey was done months ago, but Lott kept it secret until Dec 26. The results, which Lott claims are "very similar" are still secret.
Here's a simple question that Lott could respond to if he is going to be responsive: "Why, if it came from your survey, did you attribute the 98% figure to "national surveys" and to Kleck?"
I'll let Lott have the final word in today's post:
"The reluctance of gun-control advocates to release their data is quite widespread. In May 1997 I tried to obtain data from the Police Foundation about a study that they had recently released by Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig, but after many telephone calls I was told by Earl Hamilton on May 27. "Well, lots of other researchers like Arthur Kellermann do not release their data." I responded by saying that was true, but it was not something that other researchers approved of, nor did it give people much confidence in his results"
John Lott, page 291 of "More Guns, Less Crime"