More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws
- ISBN13: 9780226493640
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
“Lott’s pro-gun argument has to be examined on the merits, and its chief merit is lots of data. . . . If you still disagree with Lott, at least you will know what will be required to rebut a case that looks pretty near bulletproof.”—Peter Coy, Business Week
“By providing strong empirical evidence that yet another liberal policy is a cause of the very evil it purports to cure, he has permanently changed the terms of debate on gun control. . . . Lott’s book could hardly be more timely. . . . A model of the meticulous application of economics and statistics to law and policy.”—John O. McGinnis, National Review
“His empirical analysis sets a standard that will be difficult to match. . . . This has got to be the most extensive empirical study of crime deterrence that has been done to date.”—Public Choice
“For anyone with an open mind on either side of this subject this book will provide a thorough grounding. It is also likely to be the standard reference on the subject for years to come.”—Stan Liebowitz, Dallas Morning News
“A compelling book with enough hard evidence that even politicians may have to stop and pay attention. More Guns, Less Crime is an exhaustive analysis of the effect of gun possession on crime rates.”—James Bovard, Wall Street Journal
“John Lott documents how far ‘politically correct’ vested interests are willing to go to denigrate anyone who dares disagree with them. Lott has done us all a service by his thorough, thoughtful, scholarly approach to a highly controversial issue.”—Milton Friedman
Amazon.com Review
Multiple regression analyses are rarely the subject of heated public debate or 225-page books for laypeople. But John R. Lott, Jr.’s study in the January 1997 Journal of Legal Studies showing that concealed-carry weapons permits reduced the crime rate set off a firestorm. The updated study, together with illustrative anecdotes and a short description of the political and academic response to the study, as well as responses to the responses, makes up Lott’s informative More Guns, Less Crime.
In retrospect, it perhaps should not have been surprising that increasing the number of civilians with guns would reduce crime rates. The possibility of armed victims reduces the expected benefits and increases the expected costs of criminal activity. And, at the margin at least, people respond to changes in costs, even for crime, as Nobel-Prize winning economist [TAG]Gary Becker showed long ago. Allusions to the preferences of criminals for unarmed victims have seeped into popular culture; Ringo, a British thug in Pulp Fiction, noted off-handedly why he avoided certain targets: “Bars, liquor stores, gas stations, you get your head blown off stickin’ up one of them.”
But Lott’s actual quantification of this, in the largest and most comprehensive study of the effects of gun control to date, a study well-detailed in the book, provoked a number of attacks, ranging from the amateurish to the subtly misleading, desperate to discredit him. Lott takes the time to refute each argument; it’s almost touching the way he footnotes each time he telephones an attacker who eventually hangs up on him without substantiating any of their claims.
Lott loses a little focus when he leaves his firm quantitative base; as an economist, he should know that the low number of rejected background checks under the Brady Bill doesn’t demonstrate anything by itself, because some people may have been deterred from even undergoing the background check in the first place, but he attacks the bill on this ground anyway. But the conclusions that are backed by evidence–that concealed-weapons permits reduce crime, and do so at a lower cost to society than increasing the number of police or prisons–are important ones that should be considered by policymakers. –Ted Frank
More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws
John Lott is a first class wack job. His research is questionable and he even invented a person (a woman named Mary Rosh) to defend him on various websites and blogs. How sad is that?
Hey John, FYI guns kill innocent people.
Rating: 1 / 5
Poorly researched and using fictional statistics, this book is a great example of how NOT to do research!
Look at the reviews here on Amazon, reviewers who highly rate the book provide no credentials while those who pan the book seem to represent experts in field.
Better put, if you already know all the answers and “won’t let things like FACTS stand in your way,” this book is for you. If you are a participant in the debate HONESTLY, regardless of side, this book should be avoided.
Rating: 1 / 5
Not all gun regulations are bad. Use your head, otherwise we just hurt our cause.
“It’s just plain common sense that there be a waiting period to allow local law enforcement officials to conduct background checks on those who wish to buy a handgun.”
- Ronald Reagan *endorsing* the Brady handgun control bill, at a March 1991 event commemorating 10th anniversary of the assassination attempt.
Rating: 2 / 5
Not a good book, erroneous research that lead to dubious conclusions. Buy only if you agree with the aims of the NRA!
Rating: 1 / 5
It’s hard to tell whether or not the research done by Lott is fair or accurate (we all know how cigarette companies can massage data to show that smoking isn’t dangerous)but the sad fact of the matter is that once you allow guns out into the general populace, which Americans have done exceptionally well, then to protect yourself against gun crime you need a gun yourself. this fact is made obvious by Lott. It’s the same as the nuclear proliferation disease: if your neighbour has got a weapon and you don’t trust your neighbour, and Lott proves that we certainly don’t trust our neighbours in America, then you need to get the same weapon or better. So, yes, crime may be down but death by guns will still be extraordinarily high which Lott doesn’t dwell upon. There are thousands of gun deaths in the States every year, a vast number of which are caused by “non-criminals” through mishandling, negligence, bad temper. No other developed country even comes close to the number of gun deaths of the States. The NRA is right. Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. So the solution isn’t to get rid of guns but to get rid of the American lust for killing.
Rating: 2 / 5