More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws (Studies in Law & Economics) - Hardcover

Lott, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226493636 ISBN 13: 9780226493633

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1998

Synopsis

Does allowing people to own or carry guns deter violent crime? This text aims to present a comprehensive data analysis, and comes to the conclusion that more guns means less crime. The book uses a wide range of sources, including the FBI's yearly crime figures for all US counties, national surveys on gun ownership and police documentation on illegal gun use. The unexpected findings suggest that many of the commonly held assumptions about gun control are incorrect. The author maintain that criminals generally respond to deterrents - as the risk and potential cost of crime rises, criminals commit fewer crimes.

About this title

From the Author:

Comments from the book's reviewers:

"This sophisticated analysis yields a well established conclusion that supports the wisdom of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution rather than of those who would limit the right of law-abiding citizens to own and carry guns. The general reader may find of most interest chapter 7 which documents how far ‘politically correct’ vested interests are willing to go denigrate anyone who dares disagree with them. John Lott has done us all a service by his thorough, thoughtful scholarly approach to a highly controversial issue."—Milton Friedman

"Armed with reams of statistics, John Lott has documented many surprising linkages between guns and crime. More Guns, Less Crime demonstrates that what is at stake is not just the right to carry arms but rather our performance in controlling a diverse array of criminal behaviors. Perhaps most disturbing is Lott's documentation of the role of the media and academic commentators in distorting research findings that they regard as politically incorrect."—W. Kip Viscusi, Cogan Professor of Law and director of the Program on Empirical Legal Studies, Harvard Law School

"John Lott has done the most extensive, thorough, and sophisticated study we have on the effects of loosening gun control laws. Regardless of whether one agrees with his conclusions, his work is mandatory reading for anyone who is open-minded and serious about the gun control issue. Especially fascinating is his account of the often unscrupulous reactions to his research by gun control advocates, academic critics, and the news media."—Gary Kleck, professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University

"Until John Lott came along, the standard research paper on firearms and violence consisted of a longitudinal or cross-sectional study on a small and artfully selected data set with few meaningful statistical controls. Lott's work, embracing all of the data that are relevant to his analysis, has created a new standard, which future scholarship in this area, in order to be credible, will have to live up to."—Dan Polsby, Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law, Northwestern University.

"John Lott destroys the politically correct argument that arming law abiding citizens will have a harmful effect on their safety. There is no doubt that criminals prefer to prey upon the unprepared. This book will arm those who read it with the important facts they need in order to decide where they stand on the gun control issue."—Dale Gulbrantson, executive director, Illinois Police Association, Inc.

"This book will — or should — cause those who almost reflexively support the limitation of guns in the name of reducing crime to rethink their positions."—Steve Shavell, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

About the Author:

John R. Lott, Jr. teaches criminal deterrence and law and economics at the University of Chicago, where he is the John M. Olin Visiting Law and Economics Fellow.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0226493636
• ISBN 13: 9780226493633
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 234