Today at 10:30 ET/9:30 CT AM I an going to be on CNN, talking about the latest campus shooting. I am being paired with John Lott, who argues that more guns cause less crime. His work has been widely and consistently discredited by much better statisticians than me, both his partisan opponents and non-partisan fact checkers. Here are some relevant prebuttals.
- A Lott of Lies
- More Guns, More Gun Crime
- Fact Check: Concealed weapon laws do not lead to less crime.
- For every criminal stopped by guns, dozens more innocent people die by guns.
Other important studies
- Stanford: Right-to-carry laws lead to increase in violent crime.
- Harvard: More guns lead to more gun violence.
- An incredibly useful roundup of social science research on mass violence.
Case Studies
- Armed civilian shoots victim of carjacking in the head, rather than the carjackers.
- Armed civilians intervening in mass shootings do not dramatically reduce numbers of deaths.
Let’s not blame mental health.
- S.E. Smith’s roundup of resources on mental health and violence. People with psychiatric disabilities vastly more likely to be victims.
Tune in to CNN with Carol Costello to see how it goes. I’m not really one to shout at my debate adversaries, but I do have some things I want to say.