Monday, September 01, 2003
I'm thinking a lot about guns and crime today. More private gun ownership by law-abiding citizens means less crime.
I'm working on a script for an upcoming audio guide -- I hope to record it this weekend. The topic, ballistic fingerprinting. This forensic scientists tool received a great deal of air-play during last fall's so-called DC Sniper shootings. But it's a tool that won't work for prevention -- even though the gun-control movement would love to employ it to restrict firearms ownership.
In fact, it turns out that gun ownership may actually reduce multiple homicide events as well. In a new book, The Bias Against Guns, Dr. John Lott and Bill Landes examine multiple-victim public shootings in the United States from 1977 to 1999 and find that when states passed right-to-carry laws, these attacks fell by 60 percent. Deaths and injuries from multiple-victim public shootings fell on average by 78 percent.
More citizens packing guns means less crime.
I'm working on a script for an upcoming audio guide -- I hope to record it this weekend. The topic, ballistic fingerprinting. This forensic scientists tool received a great deal of air-play during last fall's so-called DC Sniper shootings. But it's a tool that won't work for prevention -- even though the gun-control movement would love to employ it to restrict firearms ownership.
In fact, it turns out that gun ownership may actually reduce multiple homicide events as well. In a new book, The Bias Against Guns, Dr. John Lott and Bill Landes examine multiple-victim public shootings in the United States from 1977 to 1999 and find that when states passed right-to-carry laws, these attacks fell by 60 percent. Deaths and injuries from multiple-victim public shootings fell on average by 78 percent.
More citizens packing guns means less crime.
