On Jan 19, 2013, at 1:33 PM, Henry Schaffer wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 19, 2013 at 12:24 PM, Paul Laska
> <[email protected]>wrote:
>
>> There are various criticisms of John Lott's research, such as
>> http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/12/17/who-is-gun-advocate-john-lott/191885
>
> I started reading this - it is not oriented to a discussion or even
> honest criticism - it is just trying to discredit John Lott's research -
> mostly by simply saying bad things. It starts out with the conclusion that
> he is a "dishonest pundit." That's in the first item. The second item
> pretends ("In reality ...") that the "civilized world" is constituted only
> of "high-income" nations.
If one wants "truth," one should probably start with websites that aren't
already notorious for their political biases. I would no more begin at
mediamatters or dailykos than I would begin at prisonplanet or wnd.
The bulk of John Lott's opponents like to start with a blanket statement that
he has "been discredited" simply to poison the well. There have been a few
cases where fair mathematical objections have been lodged against Lott's work.
In each case that I know of, he has reworked his model with the objections
taken into account and the results have not varied significantly (sometimes
they have even improved). Unlike gun control "researchers" such as Kellerman,
he has freely given his dataset and model to both fans and detractors alike for
independent examination. The upshot of all this peer-reproduced research has
been minor disagreement on whether the correlation between more guns and less
crime is strong, weak, or even possibly neutral. But as Lott pointed out as
long ago as his televised PBS mugging by the Brady faction, the old "common
sense" axiom that more guns equals more crime is no longer even up for
discussion.
--
Escape the Rat Race for Peace, Quiet, and Miles of Desert Beauty
Take a Sanity Break at The Bunkhouse at Liberty Haven Ranch
http://libertyhaven.com
_______________________________________________
To post, send message to [email protected]
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof
Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.
Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can
read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the
messages to others.
