More guns, less crime

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Fri Apr 23 10:48:43 PDT 1999


At 12:00 PM 4/23/99 -0400, you wrote:
>I don't know if this work has been mentioned before, but the URLs below
>link to a description of the book "More guns, less crime" (University of
>Chicago Press, 1998) and to an interview with the author of the book,
>respectively.
>
>
>http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/13530.ctl
>
>http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/493636.html

An look who's recommending it:

. Lott has done us all a service by his thorough, thoughtful scholarly approach to a

highly controversial issue."--Milton Friedman

I read the interview, and as I thought, it looks like a rat-choice/deterrence twaddle. Concealed weapons work, we are told, because criminals rationally calculate their expected benefit/risk ratios (using sophisticated econometric models pioneered by Professor Friedman, to be sure) and come to the conclusion that the chance risks outweigh any expected benfits of their action.

No wonder that senile troll Friedman recommends that drivel. To me, the very existence of that warlock is the best reason for every citizen of this country to buy and carry a fire arm. That would increase chances of him being shot.

Wojtek



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