Customer Reviews

More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, Third Edition (Studies in Law and Economics)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Nine more years of data in this third edition of "More Guns, Less Crime."

When I read the second edition eight years ago, I was pleased that John Lott's hypothesis of the mid-1990's had up held.

After all, it's just common sense that if a potential rapist thought a woman might be able to protect herself with a gun that he would be less likely to attack, being the cowards rapists are.

But the leap from common sense to policy formation sometimes takes facts.

Fortunately, this book is packed with them.

Besides showing that no state that has adopted right-to-carry legislation has seen any of the parade of horribles that opponents trot out occur, the data presented show that crime actually does decrease when people are allowed to carry firearms.

In my own state of Illinois, there was a member of the Armed Forces killed while sitting in the front row of the Northern Illinois University lecture hall when the shooter entered the stage from an outside door and started firing. Lott points out that campus security arrived in six minutes---faster than in any other mass shooting at an institution of higher learning---but that was still not good enough.

Maybe, had NIU not been a protection free zone, she (the soldier was a woman) and others would be alive today.

Perhaps the mayor of Washington, D.C., whom I understand is a fellow graduate of Oberlin College, will read the book and figure out that he could lower his city's crime rate by advocating something no good little Oberlin liberal would ever think would work...unless he or she actually was willing to follow data to their logical policy conclusions.

Not that I think my former legislative colleague, now mayor of Chicago, could make that leap, but, maybe, just maybe, the mayor of Washington can.

The rest of us who read this book will be armed with information to promote a logical "we can protect ourselves when the police aren't around, if policy-makers will let us" policy.

Incidentally, lower hurdles to get a license (in training and dollars) tend to result in larger drops in crime rates.

Lott's preface to this book is right: nearly a decade has passed since the most recent comprehensive look at effects of gun laws, a period in which fundamental changes have taken place, not least of which the sunset of an "assault weapon" federal law. Understanding the effects of these policy changes is critical, and his book covers it all. Good piece of work and very accessible material!

More Guns, Less Crime 2010 is the third edition of Lott's book originally based on his and David Mustard's Right-To-Carry study of 1997 that measured the result of 22 states going "shall issue" on carry permits for handguns between 1986 and 1996. The first 1998 edition was focussed on the RTC issue.

The 2nd edition 2000 looked at other gun control policies as well, and commented on the controversy that Lott & Mustard 1997 and Lott 1998 engendered in the media and among academics.

Since the 2nd edition 2000, a lot has happened: the CDC 2003 and NAS 2004 reviews on gun laws and gun violence, the sunset of the 1994-2004 federal Assault Weapon Ban, the Supreme Court decision on the Heller case in 2008 (gun ban in DC v Second Amendment), and so on. The 3rd edition 2010 is expanded by about 150 pages to cover these new issues.

I would like to correct an impression that may be created by an earlier reviewer, that Lott's book is a major Second Amendment resource. First, in the 2nd edition there were one sentence and one paragraph in the text and three paragraphs in the footnotes on the Second Amendment out of 300+ pages (Second Admendment issues were "...important issues that are beyond the scope of this book"--Lott at page 168); while the 3rd edition expands somewhat on the Second Amendment, it is not a resource book on the Second Amendment. Secondly, Lott stated in the Oct 2008 NPR debate on guns that his family did not own a gun until his 1996 research convinced him that having a gun was beneficial for self defense within reasonable safety costs. Lott's argument on guns and gun control is based on weighing the economic benefits v the costs of gun ownership and gun control: this is a law and economics argument, not a constitutional law argument. If you are interested in the debate over the benefits and costs of gun ownership and gun laws, this is an important book regardless of your apriori beliefs on the gun issue; if you are interested in the debate over the constitutionality of gun laws, gun rights v gun control, there are books devoted to those subjects. This book is a study of the good v the harm done with guns and by gun laws; it is not a dedicated Second Amendment analysis. Journal of Economic Literature Subject Classification K42 (Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law).

This book is a very objective look at the relationship of violent crime vs. guns.

Lott's book is almost entirely based on statistics. It isn't the most entertaining book to read but it is filled with facts and information that will blow your mind. Because of it's statistical backdrop, this book essentially separates the media's biased messages from what actually happens "in the real world". By no means is this an exciting book, however it is a must read if you truly want to understand gun control and crime.

I highly recommend this book especially for people who are pro-gun control.


Good book, objective, statistically based (boring), but extremely informative.

I found this book to be clearly written and it should be accessible to any thoughtful person. Economics offers a powerful way to think about normal phenomena.

Lott's research provides strong empirical evidence that guns in the hands of law-abiding civilians lead to a drop in criminal violence -- not to an increase, as some fear. On average, after a state introduces a concealed carry law, there are large drops in overall violent crime, murder, rape and aggravated assault.

This book is the best source for statistics on the effectiveness of concealed carry in the US. It is an important testimony to the trustworthiness of armed citizens that no state that has introduced a right-to-carry law has ever rescinded it.

Lott brilliantly replies to his critics. Spurred by the first edition of More Guns, Less Crime, numerous studies examining the effect of right-to-carry gun laws have been published in refereed academic journals. Despite news reports to the contrary, all of them found that concealed-carry laws were followed by decreases in criminal violent crime, although a few found that these decreases were small or non-existent. In addition, there were two non-refereed studies, which found evidence that right-to-carry laws led to increases in violent crime. Lott reanalyses his critics' data to show that, when their errors are corrected, their own data support Lott's conclusions.

By demonstrating that concealed-carry laws reduce violent crime, Lott's analyses complement the work of criminologist Gary Kleck, whose research shows that armed citizens use firearms to successfully protect themselves. These facts may be controversial but they are consistent with reality. Criminals want compliant, helpless victims. Society is safer when government trusts citizens and does not impede the right to own a gun.

Anyone interested in understanding what happens when citizens own and use handguns for personal defence should buy the third edition of John Lott's controversial book, More Guns, Less Crime, which has just been published. Lott's book is a stunning example of how solid research can influence public policy.

As well, I urge you to also buy Freedomnomics where Lott demonstrates the power of free market incentives in a wide range of everyday situations. The market is more friendly to individual freedom than government 'help.'

Dr. Lott does an excellent presenting the data that supports the position that mores guns in the hands of law abiding citizens the less crime there is. Dr. Lott provides a number of examples that prove this, not NRA polls, but using data from the FBI, CDC and other unbiased organizations.

A real eye opener for the anti-gun person with the courage to know the truth, certain to change your perspective...it did mineMore Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, Third Edition (Studies in Law and Economics).

I enjoyed this book, and was very impressed by the compiled statistics. Lott made every effort to make his statistics unbiased by factoring in all conceivable reasons the data may have been effected one way or the other. For example; when showing statistics about right to carry laws lowering crime rates, he factors in arrest rates and heightened law enforcement efforts city, county and statewide as a possible reason for the difference in data (in all cases those factors fail to explain away right to carry as being an effective deterrent). Well researched and well written, the only negative critism I have is, there's so much statistical data, the first part of the book is a very dull read, however it's research and not meant to be entertainment. I gave 5 stars mostly for the content in the first 200 or so pages, after that the book is alot easier to read and tells me what common sense already shows; you allow a law abiding citizen to defend themselves against criminal attack, those attacks will be reduced or completely cease. I have trouble seeing eye to eye with someone who thinks that's a bad thing.

Obviously the facts are there,backed by research and data. I found it frustrating to see how clear it is and yet we still have to defend our right to protect ourselves and loved ones. Not just from criminals but also from those who know how to twist the truth to there liking only to put us in danger.

This book does a very good job at the analysis of the City, County and FBI crime data. There are very easy to understand graphics showing across the board reductions in crime trends in states that allow citizens the right to carry for personal self-defense. The author gives many examples of how restrictive gun laws are simply just ignored by the criminals and create "victim zones" in which criminals know they can enter with the knowledge that no 'plain clothes' person will take them out before they can do their damage and destruction. The author addresses every critic's challenge and gives specific examples of personal attacks, lies and miss-truths, tactics which they need to embrace since they cannot, have not, shown that more guns results in more crimes.

The information in this book is truly mindboggling. The constant barrage of US anti-gun sentiment has so truly distorted the facts that it amounts to brainwashing. It is clear that those on the far left are desperate to implement feel-good legislation that ultimately will recklessly endanger the average US citizen. Hopefully this book will help to prevent this situation.