Letters

The interview with economist John Lott ("Cold Comfort," January 2000) revealed a surprisingly cogent point of view considering how politically incorrect it is. Anyone who has survived the childhood playground bully will accept that the bad guys seek victims they don't expect to fight back. The statistics on how rare it is for guns to cause the accidental deaths of children were also an eye-opener for me.

After 20 years of dinner-table lectures on this subject from my criminology professor father, I have a number of questions: Most important, do guns play a significant statistical role in deaths due to domestic violence or disputes among people who know each other? My father always stressed that most murders were not random but responses to psychological stresses in relationships. It's a lot easier to pull a trigger on your wife while in a rage than to beat her to death with a bat.

Next, did the changes in permit laws studied by Lott cause an increase in these types of deaths, even while decreasing rates of crimes against strangers? The other thing my father always stressed was that most criminals respond to impulse and do not meticulously plan out, their crimes as is portrayed in detective novels. He considers crime to be a failure of self-control by the criminal. In light of that, it is amazing that the change in gun laws described by Lott could have such a powerful influence on crime rates. This could mean that deterrent strategies such as the death penalty may have some value after all.

Steven Toby

Arlington, VA

s.toby@worldnet.att.net

The views of John Lott are so contrived and convoluted that they cannot go unchallenged. If his assertion that thousands of murders and assaults can be prevented if all citizens are permitted to carry concealed guns is correct, Texas should be the safest place in the world.

Texas has a population of more than 17 million people who, between them, legally own 68 million guns. There are no gun registration laws. Not surprisingly, in 1991, 3,692 people were shot to death in Texas.

If these statistics seem impersonal, consider this family event: After a family row, 14-year-old Juan Ramon of Halthom City did what many Texans do when they get angry: He started shooting. He shot a dog and injured three neighbors before killing a cop who had answered the emergency call. He was later killed by police.

Ramon's spree never would have happened if there weren't guns in the house. Several other shooting deaths followed, all within weeks of the February 1993 shootout at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco. The confusion over what to do about the proliferation of guns is not confined to Texas. In Washington, the Brady Bill remains threatened with repeal by the Republican-dominated House.

Lott fails to realize that criminals are not the only people who misuse guns. Good men can, and do, especially when they are jealous, paranoid, depressed, or drunk. The gun lobby's familiar refrain that "guns don't kill people, people kill people" is transparent sophistry. In fact, people with guns kill people.

Mahmood Elahi

Ottawa, Canada

omega51@netcom.ca

I was pleased to see that a magazine was willing to conduct an honest interview with John Lott. I must comment, however, on the remarks about the National Rifle Association doing a poor job of making its case and being on the defensive.

The Department of Justice has claimed that thousands have been turned down for gun purchases due to the instant background check. The NRA has chided the current administration because the intent of the law should be to arrest and prosecute, not to prevent sales in the legal market. The NRA also pointed out that most initial denials were due to system flaws, not legitimate records of past offenses.

Lott agrees with the NRA stand on gun locks and bad laws, though he seems to be unaware of it. In numerous articles, the NRA has pointed out the flaws of gun-free zones, that women are safer when they know how to use guns for self defense, that minorities in urban areas suffer the most when guns are outlawed, and gun laws preventing honest people from getting guns always work to the advantage of criminals. If REASON and Lott were NRA members they would know that the NRA is indeed very well versed in all arguments of the gun control debate.

Karl Black

Belleville, MI

blackk@fhsmtp.fh.trw.com

John Lott replies: Steven Toby asks whether most murders involve individuals who are close to each other. His fear may stem from FBI statistics that indicate that about 50 percent of murders are committed by "acquaintances." But that is a broad term; most of those murders involve drug buyers and pushers, gang members, and prostitutes.

The typical citizen does not become a murderer. About 90 percent of adult murderers already had a criminal record. Murderers are overwhelmingly young males with low IQs who find it difficult to get along with others.

Also in regard to Mr. Toby's question, in my book More Guns, Less Crime I find that murders among strangers as well as among acquaintances fall after the right-to-carry laws are adopted. Mr. Toby is surprised that concealed handgun laws deter crime since murder is "a failure of self-control." However, just as higher arrest or conviction rates or longer prison sentences can deter criminals, allowing potential victims to defend themselves also appears to work. Surveys of criminals indicate that they avoid victims known to be armed.