The National Academy of Sciences panel on firearms and violence has reported its findings. The press release says:
- There is no credible evidence that "right-to-carry" laws, which allow qualified adults to carry concealed handguns, either decrease or increase violent crime. To date, 34 states have enacted these laws.
- There is almost no evidence that violence-prevention programs intended to steer children away from guns have had any effects on their behavior, knowledge, or attitudes regarding firearms. More than 80 such programs exist.
- Research has found associations between gun availability and suicide with guns, but it does not show whether such associations reveal genuine patterns of cause and effect.
The whole report can be read here. There is also an opening statement and you can listen to a news conference (requires RealPlayer).
I'll have some detailed comments on their "right-to-carry" chapter later.
More like this
Lott has published an op-ed in the New York Post on the NAS panel. Lott once again claims that the panel was stacked:
The panel was set up during the Clinton administration, and all but one of its members (whose views on guns were publicly known before their appointments) favored gun control.
In…
Lott and Dabney have an op-ed in the Washington Times on concealed handguns in the workplace. As usual, Lott misrepresents the state of current research on firearms. Lott and Dabney write:
Indeed, international data as well as data from across the United States indicate that criminals are much…
You may recall how Alex Robson demonstrated his ignorance of basic statistics and of climate research. Now he has written an op-ed in Sydney's Daily Telegraph where he claims that there is no research at all that contradicts John Lott:
Laws for the concealed carrying of guns are present in some…
In his latest op-ed Lott continues his misrepresentations about crime in Australia and England:
The British government banned handguns in January 1997 but recently reported that gun crime in England and Wales nearly doubled in the seven years from 1996 to 2003. Since '96, the rate of serious…
Short version: Can't find a correlation between gun control and gun crime but, dammit, we need to keep looking until we get the result we want.
Aren't there things that demonstrably reduce crime and accidents, such as tough prosecutions and sentences for criminals, and don't leave 5-gallon buckets unattended in your yard campaigns? We certainly get a higher return on our investment on these sorts of measures than we do with gun control.
The nitwits like bradycampaign and vpc could do a lot more good with their resources but are blinded by their emotional fixation with guns.
before the gunnies get their knickers in a twist, they should note this is a repost
yeah, my knickers were already twisted by this. I'm still untwisting them, thanks.
If I'm pointing out spin, that constitutes having knickers in a twist? Of course, I must confess to not knowing what knickers are.