The Bias against Guns: Why Almost Everything You’ve Heard about Gun Control

This year, 2004, will see political realignments that will affect gun-owner rights for years to come. The current Bush administration has been a period of inertia in terms of advancing new controls, but this is largely due to the administration being distracted by the War on Terror. During his campaign for the presidency in 2000, Bush favored extending the “assault-weapons” ban of 1994 that sunsets on September 13, 2004. Should George Bush lose the election, there are more than a few politicians in his party who will gladly join the certain effort of a John Kerry administration to renew the assault-weapons ban. Although the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the U.S. triggered a wave of gun buying among the American public, the federal government remains determined to stop the advance of gun freedoms in any areas it directly controls, despite significant pressure to desist in the interest of more effective security. It has, for instance, deliberately dragged its feet on allowing airline pilots to be armed, despite the fact that there is significant support among pilots and the public for allowing pilots to be armed. Adding fuel to the fire in this post-September 11 world is John R. Lott, Jr.’s latest book, The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You’ve Heard About Gun Control is Wrong. Lott first infuriated D.C.’s political class with his first gun book, More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws (2000) where he challenged some of the most sacred shibboleths of the gun controllers. In More Guns, Less Crime Lott’s central question was, does gun ownership save or cost lives—on net—and how do gun laws affect this outcome? Lott found that national crime rates have fallen as gun ownership has risen and states with the fastest rates of growth in gun ownership had the greatest reductions in crime. While high arrest and conviction rates reduce crime, criminals respond to more than just police and courts. Concealed-carry permits reduce the occurrence of violent crimes (including public mass shootings) and these reductions correlate very closely with the number of permits issued. On the down side, allowing concealed handguns seems to cause small increases in larceny and auto theft as criminals substitute passive for active crimes. Ironically, while support for strict gun control is strongest in large cities, the greatest drops in violent crime from legal concealed handguns occurred in the most urban counties with the largest populations and highest crime rates. While increasing arrest rates in the most crime-ridden areas led to the greatest reduction in crime,