More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws
by John R. Lott Jr.

List Price: $14.00
Our Price: $8.48
You Save: $5.52 (39%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.80 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws

Book Review: More Guns DO = Less Crime, Particularly less violent crime
Summary: 5 Stars

Summary of More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws

In retrospect, it perhaps should not have been surprising that increasing the number of civilians with guns would reduce crime rates. The possibility of armed victims reduces the expected benefits and increases the expected costs of criminal activity. And, at the margin at least, people respond to changes in costs, even for crime, as Nobel-Prize winning economist [TAG]Gary Becker showed long ago. Allusions to the preferences of criminals for unarmed victims have seeped into popular culture; Ringo, a British thug in Pulp Fiction, noted off-handedly why he avoided certain targets: "Bars, liquor stores, gas stations, you get your head blown off stickin' up one of them."

But Lott's actual quantification of this, in the largest and most comprehensive study of the effects of gun control to date, a study well-detailed in the book, provoked a number of attacks, ranging from the amateurish to the subtly misleading, desperate to discredit him. Lott takes the time to refute each argument; it's almost touching the way he footnotes each time he telephones an attacker who eventually hangs up on him without substantiating any of their claims.

Lott loses a little focus when he leaves his firm quantitative base; as an economist, he should know that the low number of rejected background checks under the Brady Bill doesn't demonstrate anything by itself, because some people may have been deterred from even undergoing the background check in the first place, but he attacks the bill on this ground anyway. But the conclusions that are backed by evidence--that concealed-weapons permits reduce crime, and do so at a lower cost to society than increasing the number of police or prisons--are important ones that should be considered by policymakers. --Ted Frank

Weapons & Warfare Books

• History > Military
• Nonfiction > Current Events > Arms Control
• Crime & Criminals > Criminology
• Politics > Practical Politics
• U.S.
• Social Sciences > Sociology
• Violence in Society
• Law > Business > Labor & Employment
• Law: General
• Nonfiction: Politics: General