Gun Control

John Lott has been arguing for quite a while that gun control does not work. In an number of books and articles, he has gone through the crime data compiled by the FBI and found that more guns equals less crime, the exact opposite of what gun control advocates have long contended. Now the National Academy of Sciences has issued a report on gun control.

The big news is that the academy's panel couldn't identify any benefits of decades-long effort to reduce crime and injury by restricting gun ownership. The only conclusion it could draw was: Let's study the question some more (presumably, until we find the results we want).

The academy, however, should believe its own findings. Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, a survey that covered 80 different gun-control measures and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun-control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

From the assault-weapons ban to the Brady Act to one-gun-a-month restrictions to gun locks, nothing worked.

Of course actually saying that gun control is counterproductive (see the example of England which recently banned all guns and has seen an upsurge in crime) is not politically correct. So the NAS has in effect tried to hide the results. So much for scientific rigor.