Date: Fri, 6 Sep 1996 15:28:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: Doug McNash <[d m cnash] at [crl.com]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[n--b--n] at [mainstream.net]>
Subject: Re: WALL STREET JOURNAL 9/9/96
Here is both Schumer's [lame] letter and the response.
>From WSJ Letters:
Gun-Control Thesis
Is a Shot in the Dark
John R. Lott Jr.'s thesis--that concealed
weapons laws reduce crime rates ("More Guns,
Less Violent Crime," Rule of Law, Aug.
28)--flies in the face of common sense and a
body of scholarly research. The bottom line:
Crime is going down despite concealed weapons
laws, not because of them.
America is winning the war against crime
because of a balanced program of common-sense
anti-crime measures. The 1994 crime law, which
I sponsored, included longer prison sentences
and more police on the streets. States have
strengthened penalties for a wide range of
crimes. Congress and the states have also
enacted gun-control measures, like the Brady
Law and the assault-weapons ban.
Prof. Lott basically dismisses it all. In a
perverse bit of argumentation, he contends that
the Brady Law is "associated with more
aggravated assaults and rapes." The dry facts
may come from his data, but any connection
between the two is wild interpretation. Does
Prof. Lott really mean that the Brady Law
caused more rapes? Or does "associated" simply
mean the two happened at the same time, perhaps
by coincidence? Common sense provides a clear
answer, even if the statistics do not.
In that spirit, I'd like to point out one other
"association." The Associated Press reports
that Prof. Lott's fellowship at the University
of Chicago is funded by the Olin Foundation,
which is "associated with the Olin
Corporation," one of the nation's largest gun
manufacturers. Maybe that's a coincidence, too.
But it's also a fact.
Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D., N.Y.)
Washington
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
An Insult to Our Foundation
As president of the John M. Olin Foundation, I
take great umbrage at Rep. Charles Schumer's
scurrilous charge (Letters to the Editor, Sept.
4) that our foundation underwrites bogus
research to advance the interests of companies
that manufacture guns and ammunition. He
asserts (falsely) that the John M. Olin
Foundation is "associated" with the Olin Corp.
and (falsely again) that the Olin Corp. is one
of the nation's largest gun manufacturers. Mr.
Schumer then suggests on the basis of these
premises that Prof. John Lott's article on gun
control legislation (editorial page, Aug. 28)
must have been fabricated because his research
fellowship at the University of Chicago was
funded by the John M. Olin Foundation.
This is an outrageous slander against our
foundation, the Olin Corp., and the scholarly
integrity of Prof. Lott. Mr. Schumer would have
known that his charges were false if he had
taken a little time to check his facts before
rushing into print. Others have taken the
trouble to do so. For example, Stephen Chapman
of the Chicago Tribune looked into the charges
surrounding Mr. Lott's study, and published an
informative story in the Aug. 15 issue of that
paper, which concluded that, in conducting his
research, Prof. Lott was not influenced either
by the John M. Olin Foundation or by the Olin
Corp. Anyone wishing to comment on this
controversy ought first to consult Mr.
Chapman's article and, more importantly, should
follow his example of sifting the facts before
reaching a conclusion.
For readers of the Journal, here are the key
facts:
The John M. Olin Foundation, of which I have
been president for nearly 20 years, is an
independent foundation whose purpose is to
support individuals and institutions working to
strengthen the free enterprise system. We
support academic programs at the finest
institutions in the nation, including the
University of Chicago, Harvard, Yale, Stanford,
Columbia, the University of Virginia, and many
others. We do not tell scholars what to write
or what to say.
The foundation was created by the personal
fortune of the late John M. Olin, and is not
associated with the Olin Corp. The Olin Corp.
has never sought to influence our
deliberations. Our trustees have never taken
into account the corporate interests of the
Olin Corp. or any other company when reviewing
grant proposals. We are as independent of the
Olin Corp. as the Ford Foundation is of the
Ford Motor Co.
The John M. Olin Foundation has supported for
many years a program in law and economics at
the University of Chicago Law School. This
program is administered and directed by a
committee of faculty members in the law school.
This committee, after reviewing many
applications in a very competitive process,
awarded a research fellowship to Mr. Lott. We
at the foundation had no knowledge of who
applied for these fellowships, nor did we ever
suggest that Mr. Lott should be awarded one of
them. We did not commission his study, nor,
indeed, did we even know of it until last
month, when Mr. Lott presented his findings at
a conference sponsored by a Washington think
tank.
As a general rule, criticism of research
studies should be based on factual grounds
rather than on careless and irresponsible
charges about the motives of the researcher.
Mr. Lott's study should be evaluated on its own
merits without imputing motives to him that do
not exist. I urge Mr. Schumer to check his
facts more carefully in the future.
Finally, it was incorrectly reported in the
Journal (Sept. 5) that the John M. Olin
Foundation is "headed by members of the family
that founded the Olin Corp." This is untrue.
The trustees and officers of the foundation
have been selected by virtue of their devotion
to John Olin's principles, not by virtue of
family connections. Of our seven board members,
only one is a member of the Olin family. None
of our officers is a member of the Olin
family--neither myself as president, nor our
secretary-treasurer, nor our executive
director.
William E. Simon
President
John M. Olin Foundation Inc.
New York
--
______________________________________________________________________________
Doug McNash [d--g] at [dickens.com] |\*\ /*/|
Dickens Data Systems http://www.dickens.com | \*\ /*/ |
1175 Northmeadow Parkway, Suite 150 | \*\ /*/ |
Roswell, GA 30076 | > * < |
(770) 442-7921 Voice | /*/ \*\ |
(770) 442-7525 Fax | /*/ \*\ |
|/*/ \*\|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~