-Caveat Lector-
At 01:47 PM 9/1/2001 -0300, you wrote:
>-Caveat Lector-
>
>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,33361,00.html
>
> Gun Panel Meets and Comes Under Fire
>
> WASHINGTON � The panel appointed by
> President Bill Clinton to study
existing research
> and data on firearms met for the first
> time Thursday and was immediately shot
at for
> allegedly being stacked with pro-gun
> control academics and funded by
advocates for
> tighter gun control laws.
>
> The panel, called the Committee to
Improve
> Research Information and Data on Firearms, will operate
under
> the supervision of the National Academy of Sciences and
the National
> Research Council, with a final paper due in May 2003.
>
> But John Lott, a criminal researcher who is skeptical of
gun control laws,
> says the panel is like "a parting present from President
Clinton," that will be
> delivered just in time to boost pro-gun control
candidates in the 2004
> elections.
>
> "It's not a balanced panel," Lott, a Yale University law
professor, said
> Thursday after the committee held its inaugural meeting
in Washington, D.C.
>
> The panel has "selectively picked the questions which
focus on all of the bad
> aspects of guns and not the benefits," said Lott. "And,
they've been selective
> in who they have put on the panel and they are making
sure the report comes
> out just before a major election."
>
> According to its mission statement, the committee is
supposed to study
> current firearms research and data, including
methodologies and prevention,
> intervention and control strategies," illegal firearms
markets and the
> "complex ways in which firearms may become embedded in
the community."
>
> The panel has 16 members, including former Carter
administration Attorney
> General Benjamin Civiletti, a gun control advocate.
>
> "The nation can no longer afford to let the gun lobby's
distortion of the
> Constitution cripple every reasonable attempt to
implement an effective
> national policy towards guns and crime," Civiletti said
in The Washington
> Post in 1992.
>
> The panel also includes Steven Levitt, a University of
Chicago professor who
> has written extensively on guns and crime and authored a
controversial study
> that said the legalization of abortion in the United
States in the early
> 1970s may explain in part the drop in crime in the last
several years.
>
> And the committee is funded in part by Joyce Foundation
and the David &
> Lucille Packard Foundation, both generous supporters of
anti-gun groups in
> the past.
>
> But the committee also includes James Q. Wilson, who has
supported gun
> ownership rights in his writings. Wilson, a professor of
political science at
> Pepperdine University, said Thursday that he does not
believe the
> committee's mission is to direct policy, rather to take a
tough look at existing
> data in hopes of improving resources for policymakers,
researchers and
> social scientists in the future.
>
> He said this is the fourth time he has sat on a National
Academy of Sciences
> panel and each time he has found it to be balanced and
apolitical. "My hope
> and belief is this panel will do the same thing," he
said. "I could be wrong,
> but I've been on this loop before and I expect it will be
the same."
>
> Carol Petrie of the National Research Council says those
in charge of the
> selection process took recommendations from the varying
Academy of
> Science departments and tried to avoid choosing persons
with "extreme
> views" either way.
>
> "It's not that the people may not have personal biases,"
she said, but they all
> have "credible, objective views of research." If the
committee finds that it does
> not have a balance, she added, they are not averse to
adding one or two new
> members.
>
> "We wanted people who would be open-minded to the facts,"
she said. "It's a
> consensus process."
>
> Lott did not make the cut. His research of 3,054 U.S.
counties over a 17-year
> period resulted in a conclusion that tough gun control
laws do not deter
> crime, but in those states and counties that have adapted
concealed-carry
> laws allowing citizens to carry firearms in public, crime
has dropped.
>
> His work has been criticized by gun control groups before
and today was no
> exception.
>
> "Are all his findings believable?" challenged Douglas
Weil of the Brady
> Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "Why do we need to know
this stuff?"
>
> Dave Kopel, research director for the Independence
Institute and a vocal
> advocate for Second Amendment rights, charged that the
real intent of the
> committee was to debunk research that supports the right
to own guns,
> including Lott's work, which has added scholarly heft to
the arguments made
> by gun rights groups in the last two years.
>
> "I don't think they can say they have no predisposed
outcome," Kopel said. "I
> think it's a group of people who are first class,
respectable folks � but who
> are inclined to be on the control side."
>
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