Do Lego guns cause crime?: A light-hearted review of case-control, cohort, and RCT study designs.

Rush Limburger: Well it seems pretty stupid to me. I know how you research people do this. You do a “randomized controlled trial.” You pick a kindergarten class and give half of the kids toy guns and not the other half, then see who commits more crimes. You control the “intervention” and watch for “outcomes.” Of course this cannot be done. It is unethical to withhold guns from law-abiding citizens, even if they can’t yet tie their shoes. The kids with the guns will obviously share them with the kids without guns. Third, kindergarten kids won’t be committing crimes for a long time. Therefore the research cannot be done. And therefore we should use common sense, which dictates that unprotected kids will get shot at more than kids with guns so we should train them early to keep them safe.