From: [C upi] at [clari.net] (UPI)
Newsgroups: clari.news.issues.guns
Subject: Study: Concealed handguns reduce crime
Keywords: social issues, gun control, legal, violent crime,
        nonviolent crime
Organization: Copyright 1996 by United Press International
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 1996 18:30:16 PDT
                                         
        CHICAGO, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- A University of Chicago study released  
Thursday contends that in American counties where the public is allowed 
to carry concealed handguns, serious crimes such as murder and rape have 
been reduced significantly. 
        Others, however, criticized the study, saying its conclusions were  
reached by using flawed methodology and did not take into account other 
laws that made guns more difficult to obtain for felons. 
        The study was conducted by University of Chicago Law School professor  
John Lott and David B. Mustard, a graduate student at the university's 
Department of Economics. It was presented at the Cato Institute in 
Washington. 
        Lott and Mustard studied county-level crime statistics from around  
the United States, both in counties that had ``right to carry'' laws and 
in those that did not. They found that when state concealed handgun laws 
went into effect, murders fell by an average of 8.5 percent, while rapes 
and aggravated assaults fell on average by 5 percent and 7 pecent, 
respectively. 
        ``The net effect of allowing concealed handguns is clearly to save  
lives,'' Lott wrote in the report. ``Allowing citizens without criminal 
records or histories of significant mental illness to carry concealed 
handguns deters violent crimes and appears to produce an extremely small 
and statistically insignificant change in accidental deaths.'' 
        The study contradicts many earlier studies suggesting concealed  
weapon laws produced increased crime rates. 
        Lott and Mustard used data from counties with concealed handgun laws  
from 1977 to 1992. They contend that states that do not have such laws 
could have prevented approximately 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes and more 
than 60,000 aggravated assaults per year if such laws had been 
established in 1992. 
        The authors also claimed that in localities where the public is  
allowed to carry concealed weapons, criminals turn to burglary and other 
types of crime that do not involve physcial confrontation. 
        Lott and Mustard's study was roundly criticized by anti-handgun  
violence groups. One such criticism came from the Johns Hopkins Center 
for Gun Policy and Research, which said the study's findings were 
``unsubstantiated'' and contained ``factual and methodological flaws.'' 
        School officials said Lott and Mustard did not account for the  
effects of laws that make it more difficult for felons to obtain guns. 
        They said the pair also used ``incorrect and discredited''  
methodology, specifically, using arrest rates to predict crime rates. 
They said that high-crime areas that experienced a crime decline after 
introduction of the law may have seen the decline simply because of a 
drift toward a lower, long-term average level. 
        Critics said the study also ignores long-established facts about the  
crimes of murder, rape and aggravated assault. Statistics have long 
shown such crimes usually occur between people who are related or who 
already know each other, a situation in which carrying a gun in public 
would have little relevance.