This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Eloquence (talk | contribs) at 01:32, 13 June 2003 (Reverted to last edit by Stephen C. Carlson). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 01:32, 13 June 2003 by Eloquence (talk | contribs) (Reverted to last edit by Stephen C. Carlson)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)John R. Lott Jr., is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who argues in favor of allowing Americans without a criminal record to own and carry guns.
- "...the evidence is that, with more than 2 million defensive guns used each year, guns are used at least four times more frequently to stop crime than they are used to commit crime."
In his book More Guns, Less Crime, he presents statistical evidence for his claim that allowing adults to carry concealed weapons has significantly reduced crime in America.
Lott claims that selective reporting by US media fails to report instances of people defending themeselves (or others) via legal use of guns. For example a school shooting was reportedly ended by students who "tackled" the gunman, but Lott quotes eyewitnesses who say that Tracy Bridges pointed a gun at the killer, who then dropped his weapon before being tackled.
Opposition to Lott's views
His work is opposed by gun control groups and by some skeptics within the gun rights movement. Lott has been criticized for analyzing only those data which promote his pro-gun agenda, and ignoring the rest. In particular his analysis of crime statistics in those states that have tightened gun ownership laws has been criticized on these grounds.
On-line Pseudonym
In early 2003 John Lott admitted that he had created and used the pseudonym "Mary Rosh" to defend his own works in Internet discussion forums. "Rosh" claimed to be one of Lott's former students and that "he was the best professor that I ever had."
While Lott did not take part in such discussions under his real name, he used the Rosh identity to defend his methods on-line. The identity was also used for a five star review on Amazon.com, although Lott claims that his son and wife wrote it, and he merely approved it. He states that the name "Mary Rosh" derived from the first two letters of his four sons' first names.
The pseudonym was discovered when weblogger Julian Sanchez noticed that the IP address Lott used to reply to an email was the same he had used to take part in discussions under the name "Mary Rosh".
Lott's critics have said that the incident calls into question Lott's trustworthiness and his scholarship. His defenders reject such claims as ad hominem.
External links
Regarding Lott's research:
- Tim Lambert: Do more guns cause less crime?
- Ted Goertzel: Myths of Murder and Multiple Regression
- Otis Dudley Duncan: Gun Use Surveys: In Numbers We Trust?
Regarding the Mary Rosh identity: