John Lott
Summary of article in the magazine Handguns:
Don B. Kates discusses “shall-issue” laws on concealed carry permits in the United States. In his article, he begins by evaluating a famous study done by John Lott. His study credits the ‘deterrent’ effect of states’ “shall-issue” laws which spread handgun licensing out to responsible citizens who abide by the law and have a very minimal criminal record. Lott’s study suggests that “there is a massive reduction in violent crime in the 1990’s because criminals believe that most citizens within these “shall-issue” states have concealed handguns, therefore, are less likely to attack”. After reviewing Lott’s study, Kates criticizes the concept of a “gun-free zone”. In short he says that when one …show more content…
His study concluded that the “states’ issuance of concealed carry permits lowers violent crime rates and saves lives”. Many researchers and scientists have attempted to discredit his work by pointing out flaws in his research. In this follow-up article of his study, he addresses these claims of poor research and follows with examples to discredit the various claims made against his work. For example, one of the researchers claimed “Lott and Mustard rarely find statistically significant effects of shall-issue laws on robbery rates”. Lott followed by firmly stating that this “was false”, “our study found consistent, statistically significant effects on robbery from concealed-handgun laws”. He illustrated his point with a graph that highlights estimates for robbery rates over time. This discredited the researchers’ objection to his study. Lott’s article follows with numerous researchers objections to his study and he goes on to prove that each one of these objections is false, only strengthening the findings in his study. To conclude his article he points out that the last gun control study only examined 170 cities within a single year. His research study examined crime rates over 16 years across 3054 United States counties, and had numerous control variables which far surpassed any other study done before. Lott stays very firm on his findings that “strong evidence links the number of concealed handguns to lower crime rates and fewer
Don B. Kates discusses “shall-issue” laws on concealed carry permits in the United States. In his article, he begins by evaluating a famous study done by John Lott. His study credits the ‘deterrent’ effect of states’ “shall-issue” laws which spread handgun licensing out to responsible citizens who abide by the law and have a very minimal criminal record. Lott’s study suggests that “there is a massive reduction in violent crime in the 1990’s because criminals believe that most citizens within these “shall-issue” states have concealed handguns, therefore, are less likely to attack”. After reviewing Lott’s study, Kates criticizes the concept of a “gun-free zone”. In short he says that when one …show more content…
His study concluded that the “states’ issuance of concealed carry permits lowers violent crime rates and saves lives”. Many researchers and scientists have attempted to discredit his work by pointing out flaws in his research. In this follow-up article of his study, he addresses these claims of poor research and follows with examples to discredit the various claims made against his work. For example, one of the researchers claimed “Lott and Mustard rarely find statistically significant effects of shall-issue laws on robbery rates”. Lott followed by firmly stating that this “was false”, “our study found consistent, statistically significant effects on robbery from concealed-handgun laws”. He illustrated his point with a graph that highlights estimates for robbery rates over time. This discredited the researchers’ objection to his study. Lott’s article follows with numerous researchers objections to his study and he goes on to prove that each one of these objections is false, only strengthening the findings in his study. To conclude his article he points out that the last gun control study only examined 170 cities within a single year. His research study examined crime rates over 16 years across 3054 United States counties, and had numerous control variables which far surpassed any other study done before. Lott stays very firm on his findings that “strong evidence links the number of concealed handguns to lower crime rates and fewer