From: Julian Assange <proff@suburbia.net>
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 1996 09:28:28 +0800
To: sandfort@crl.com (Sandy Sandfort)
Subject: Re: STEGO GUNS
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960807101421.20235A-100000@crl14.crl.com>
Message-ID: <199608072128.HAA28140@suburbia.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


> C'punks,
> 
> The following is from USA Today of last Friday:
> 
> 	In a comprehensive study that may reshape the 
> 	gun control debate, researchers have found that 
> 	letting people carry concealed guns appears to
> 	sharply reduce killings, rapes and other violent
> 	crimes.
> 
> 	The nationwide study [from the University of
> 	Chicago] found that violent crime fell after
> 	states made it legal to carry concealed handguns:
> 	*   Homicide, down 8.5%.
> 	*   Rape, down 5%.
> 	*   Aggravated assault, down 7%.
> 	...
> 	The drop isn't primarily caused by people 
> 	defending themselves with guns, says John Lott,
> 	the study's author.  Rather, criminals seem to 
> 	alter their behavior to avoid coming into contact
> 	with a person who might have a gun.
> 
> The official release of the study is scheduled for tomorrow.  
> The study took two years and was peer reviewed.
> 
> 
>  S a n d y

Correlation != causation. What are the figures on other crimes? I
presume they would have to have gone up, since the criminal element has
been deprived of it's "revenue" in this manner. Perhaps they simply
didn't have time for killing, raping and assulting; being too busy
lugging around their legally concealed handguns and pointing them at
shop-keepers.

-- 
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely  exercised for the good of its victims  
 may be the most  oppressive.  It may be better to live under  robber barons  
 than  under  omnipotent  moral busybodies,  The robber baron's  cruelty may  
 sometimes sleep,  his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who  
 torment us for own good  will torment us  without end,  for they do so with 
 the approval of their own conscience."    -   C.S. Lewis, _God in the Dock_ 
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