And This Proves What …?

Guns Magazine, June, 2001 by Scott Farrell

Advocates or gun control are crowing over a new study which, they claim, refutes the data published by John Lott in his groundbreaking study "More Guns, Less Crime." Lott's initial study, based on first-hand interviews, revealed that violent crime was reduced in a number of states after the passage of shall-issue concealed carry weapon laws.

The new study, authored by economist Mark Duggan and entitled "More Guns, More Crime," supposedly reveals that previous studies on the effects of concealed carry laws are erroneous. Why? Because, according to the report, in states that passed concealed carry laws, there is no evidence that gun ownership increased following passage of the law. Subsequently, crime declined just as much in areas or high gun ownership as it did in areas of low gun ownership.

In other words, in states that passed shall-issue CCW laws, nobody rushed out to buy new guns, and yet crime rates decreased everywhere, not just in neighborhoods where people already owned guns. Thus, this study claims, CCW laws are a failure. (Which means that, in good liberal fashion, they've redefined the word "failure.")

Of course, this conclusion misses the mark completely. In reality, both studies underscore the success of CCW laws. Crime goes down when criminals have to fear armed citizens -- regardless of how many citizens actually are armed.