From: [C reuters] at [clari.net] (Reuters)
Newsgroups: clari.news.issues.guns,clari.news.issues.misc
Subject: Concealed gun laws cut crime, U.S. study says
Organization: Copyright 1996 by Reuters
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 1996 14:00:08 PDT
Expires: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 14:00:08 PDT

                                         
         WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Allowing private citizens to carry  
concealed handguns reduces murders and other violent crimes, 
according to a study made public Thursday by two University of 
Chicago professors. 
         ``We find that allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons  
deters violent crimes and it appears to produce no increase in 
accidential deaths,'' John Lott of the law school and David 
Mustard of the economics department said. 
         Their findings were made public by the Cato Institute, a  
private, Washington-based research center. 
         The study compared crime rates in the 29 states that allow  
concealed weapons with those that do not. Ten of those states 
adopted concealed weapons laws between 1977 and 1992. 
         The two professors said the possibility that potential  
victims might be armed often deterred criminals. 
         ``By the very nature of these guns being concealed,  
criminals are unable to tell whether the victim is armed before 
they strike, thus raising criminals' expected costs for 
committing many types of crimes,'' they said. 
         ``Surveys of convicted felons in American reveal that they  
are much more worried about armed victims than they are about 
running into the police.'' 
         They said if all states had laws allowing concealed weapons,  
there would have been 1,570 fewer murders and 4,177 fewer rapes 
in 1992, the year they surveyed. 
         The study said there were 1,409 accidential U.S. gun deaths  
in 1992, with 546 of them in states that allowed   concealed 
handguns and 863 in states without such laws. 
         The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence challenged the study,  
saying it failed to take into account gun control laws and other 
crime prevention steps that affected the crime rate. 
         ``We really do not believe Dr. Lott's results,'' Douglas  
Weil of the center said. 
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