MORE GUNS

LESS CRIME

2d Ed.

John R. Lott, Jr.

University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2003

Review by K. L. Jamison

In 1996 Professor Lott delivered at paper at the Cato Institute stating "more guns, less crime.  The following year he and Professor Mustard published the paper in the Journal of Legal Studies stating "more guns, less crime".  The following year, fortified with criticism and comments he published the first edition of this book entitled More Guns Less Crime.  Five years later after a firestorm of criticism, comment, abuse and death threats, he has a new edition with new material, and it is still titled More Guns Less Crime.  There is a pattern here.

          The author responds to the invented critics of the first edition, none of whom seems to have read the book, do not care what it says and criticize what they imagine that it says.  The author details repeated re-evaluation of his data in light of variables critics claim that he ignored.  The result is:  more guns, less crime.  Missouri residents will be interested in the author’s attempts to correct misrepresentations of crime data published during the Proposition B debate on a concealed handgun law.  It is of special interest that local newspapers took no interest in his information.

          The work is required reading for commentators in the firearms field.  It is, however, written by a statistics professor.  It is crammed with information, but not a quick read.  The author would do well to expand the glossary for the third edition.  Terms of common use to the author are puzzlement to the lay reader.