More Guns, Less Crime by John R Lott Jnr. press release
University of Chicago Press
1 May 1998
For Immediate release
CONTACT:
Sarah Leopold
978 745 6762
sal282@aol.com
MORE GUNS, LESS CRIME: UNDERSTANDING CRIME AND GUN CONTROL LAWS
University
of Chicago Press Publication date: May 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-226-49363-6 Price: $23.00
"John
Lott documents how far "politically correct" interests are prepared to go
to denigrate anyone who dares disagrees with them. Lott has done us all a
service by his thorough, thoughtful, scholarly approach to a highly controversial
issue."
- Milton
Friedman
Does allowing people to own and carry concealed weapons really deter violent crime? Or does it simply cause more citizens to harm each other? In this important study, legal scholar John Lott presents the most rigorously comprehensive data ever done on crime in America. Lott meticulously analyzes the effects of gun control laws on crime rates. In what comes as a challenge to conventional wisdom, he reaches a startling conclusion: where there are more guns, there is less crime.
Many people firmly believe that the way to control crime is to restrict handgun ownership. "It is counterintuitive to come to any other conclusion regarding public safety," wrote Mark Genrich in his February 25, Arizona Republic commentary. "More guns certainly mean more violence. At least I always thought so. But in More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, Professor John R. Lott takes a careful look at relevant statistics and comes to some startling - for my people - conclusions....He knows what he is talking about, which makes what he says even more compelling."
No matter where one stands on this controversial issue, More Guns, Less Crime is a crucial source of facts on the subject. Lott studied the FBI's massive yearly crime figures for all 3,054 U.S. counties over eighteen years, the largest national surveys on gun ownership, as well as state police documents on illegal gun use. His unexpected findings reveal that many of the most commonly held assumptions about gun control and its crime fighting efficacy are simply wrong.
An important, eye-opening look at guns and crime in our society, More Guns, Less Crime is required reading for anyone who wants to take an informed, intelligent, position on the contentious and critical American debate over gun control.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
John R. Lott Jr. is the John M. Olin Visiting Law and Economics Fellow at
the University of Chicago. He has held positions at Stanford, UCLA, Wharton,
Rice and Texas A&M and was chief economist at the United States Sentencing
Commission during 1988 and 1989. This is his first book.
Facts About Guns and Crime
From John
Lott, author of
MORE GUNS, LESS CRIME: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws
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A passive victim is much more likely to be seriously injured by a criminal than a victim who resists attacks with a gun.
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States with the largest increases in gun ownership also have the largest drops in violent crime.
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High crime, urban areas, and neighborhoods with large minority populations have the greatest reductions in violent crime when law-abiding citizens are allowed to carry concealed handguns.
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Children 5 to 14 years of age are 14.5 times more likely to die from car accidents, five time more likely to die from drowning or fire and burns, and three time more likely to die from bicycle accidents than they are to dire from gun accidents.
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Using data for all 3,054 US counties during 18 years from 1977 to 1994, Lott finds that for each additional year that a concealed handgun law is in effect the murder rate declines by 3%, robberies by over 2%, and the rape rate by 2%.
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Neither state waiting periods nor the Federal Brady Law is associated with the reduction in crime rates.
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Adopting concealed handgun laws cuts the death rate from public, multiple shootings - such as the 1993 shooting of six people on the Long Island Railroad-by 69%.
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An additional woman carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for women by about 3 to 4 times more than an additional man carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for men.
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The number of concealed handgun permits in not associated with either increased accidental deaths or suicides.
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