Monkeyleg
November 2, 2003, 06:04 PM
I've already had my allotted "share" of letters to the editor in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Any rebuttals letters to Gregory Stanford's column would be much appreciated.
Here's his column:
Concealed-carry law unlikely to make Wisconsin safer
By GREGORY STANFORD
gstanford@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Nov. 1, 2003
Officers of the law are working to take guns off the streets. Makers of the law are working to put guns on the streets.
Two opposite theories for keeping the peace are clashing. One theory has it that the fewer the guns, the safer the streets. The other theory has it that the more the guns, the safer the streets.
Law enforcement officers here are proceeding on the basis of the former theory. They're confiscating weapons hidden on people and inside vehicles in high-crime neighborhoods. Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke has even formed a special unit to stop motorists who are breaking traffic laws and then to get their OK to search their cars for firearms.
Meanwhile, Madison politicians are proceeding on the basis of the latter theory. A bill to permit ordinary residents to carry concealed weapons is sailing through the Legislature.
The thinking of the pols pushing this measure meshes with the thinking of some inner city residents who pack heat. They do so to avert trouble. But the frequent "bang, bang" sounds, the flashing red lights, the yellow tape testify that trouble shadows guns in the city's core neighborhoods.
Both sides of the concealed-carry issue ought to concede these two facts:
* Guns in the hands of private citizens with clean records have done some good. They have stopped murders, rapes and robberies.
* Guns in the hands of private citizens with clean records have done some harm. They have aided murders, rapes and robberies or prompted accidental shootings or just worsened the violence.
Here's the true question: Do guns in the hands of private citizens with clean records do more good than harm?
Notably, the officials who deal with the nitty-gritty of crime - that is, the state's sheriffs and police chiefs - overwhelmingly believe a concealed-carry law would hurt much more than it would help. Listen to Ozaukee County Sheriff Maury Straub, who told this paper: "As sheriff, I know of very few people who have had to protect their lives or the lives of others by deadly force."
In short, the use of private guns to stop crimes is rare; the misuse of guns, on the other hand, is an everyday occurrence somewhere in the state even by people who lawfully possess them.
Avid gun fans subscribe to a world view in which just the opposite is true: Gun-toting, law-abiding citizens are frequently John Waynes to the rescue, busting up crimes and rarely falling prey to the dark side of human nature. But this outlook is sheer fantasy.
An academician, John Lott, has fed this fantasy with a 1998 book titled "More Guns, Less Crime," which purported to show that the crime rate goes down when the number of concealed weapons goes up. This book has flunked peer review, however. Independent scholars from many disciplines have debunked it. And questions have emerged of late about whether Lott made up a key survey on which his argument rests.
Lott's discredited thesis is that, out of fear you might be packing heat, bad guys are less likely to pick on you if your state features a concealed-carry law.
That outcome is, indeed, one possibility. Another possibility is that outlaws will be quicker to shoot you to stop you from pulling a gun.
Yet a third possibility is that you become the outlaw - drawing your legally concealed pistol, for instance, to settle a quarrel. In fact, count on that outcome here based on experience elsewhere.
Bruce Thompson, a professor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, sometimes doodles by plotting data. He e-mails me three charts he drew up. Dots stand in for the nation's metro areas. The higher on the chart they are, the higher the crime rate, according to FBI figures. Boxes enclose the dots for the metro areas from the six states without concealed-carry laws.
On charts plotting the violent crime rate and the murder rate, the dots appear scattershot. The boxed dots, however, hover near the bottom of the charts. In other words, metro areas without concealed-carry laws tend to boast lower violent crime rates than do metro areas with such laws.
But does one lead to the other? Or do residents just happen to abide by the law more in the metro areas where the toting of hidden guns is not permitted?
Well, a third chart, plotting the property crime rate, hints at a cause and effect. Again, the dots are scattered all over the place. But this time, the boxed dots are spread out just as evenly as the regular dots. In other words, metro areas with and without concealed-carry laws show no difference in property crime rates - suggesting that the residents are equally inclined to be law-abiding.
Thompson, a former Milwaukee School Board member, notes that his charts are not conclusive proof that a law permitting the carrying of concealed weapons will mean more violent crime. But they amount to one more reason why lawmakers trying to put yet more guns on the streets should exercise prudence and drop that push.
Gregory Stanford is a Journal Sentinel editorial writer and columnist. His e-mail address is gstanford@journalsentinel.com
Here's his column:
Concealed-carry law unlikely to make Wisconsin safer
By GREGORY STANFORD
gstanford@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Nov. 1, 2003
Officers of the law are working to take guns off the streets. Makers of the law are working to put guns on the streets.
Two opposite theories for keeping the peace are clashing. One theory has it that the fewer the guns, the safer the streets. The other theory has it that the more the guns, the safer the streets.
Law enforcement officers here are proceeding on the basis of the former theory. They're confiscating weapons hidden on people and inside vehicles in high-crime neighborhoods. Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke has even formed a special unit to stop motorists who are breaking traffic laws and then to get their OK to search their cars for firearms.
Meanwhile, Madison politicians are proceeding on the basis of the latter theory. A bill to permit ordinary residents to carry concealed weapons is sailing through the Legislature.
The thinking of the pols pushing this measure meshes with the thinking of some inner city residents who pack heat. They do so to avert trouble. But the frequent "bang, bang" sounds, the flashing red lights, the yellow tape testify that trouble shadows guns in the city's core neighborhoods.
Both sides of the concealed-carry issue ought to concede these two facts:
* Guns in the hands of private citizens with clean records have done some good. They have stopped murders, rapes and robberies.
* Guns in the hands of private citizens with clean records have done some harm. They have aided murders, rapes and robberies or prompted accidental shootings or just worsened the violence.
Here's the true question: Do guns in the hands of private citizens with clean records do more good than harm?
Notably, the officials who deal with the nitty-gritty of crime - that is, the state's sheriffs and police chiefs - overwhelmingly believe a concealed-carry law would hurt much more than it would help. Listen to Ozaukee County Sheriff Maury Straub, who told this paper: "As sheriff, I know of very few people who have had to protect their lives or the lives of others by deadly force."
In short, the use of private guns to stop crimes is rare; the misuse of guns, on the other hand, is an everyday occurrence somewhere in the state even by people who lawfully possess them.
Avid gun fans subscribe to a world view in which just the opposite is true: Gun-toting, law-abiding citizens are frequently John Waynes to the rescue, busting up crimes and rarely falling prey to the dark side of human nature. But this outlook is sheer fantasy.
An academician, John Lott, has fed this fantasy with a 1998 book titled "More Guns, Less Crime," which purported to show that the crime rate goes down when the number of concealed weapons goes up. This book has flunked peer review, however. Independent scholars from many disciplines have debunked it. And questions have emerged of late about whether Lott made up a key survey on which his argument rests.
Lott's discredited thesis is that, out of fear you might be packing heat, bad guys are less likely to pick on you if your state features a concealed-carry law.
That outcome is, indeed, one possibility. Another possibility is that outlaws will be quicker to shoot you to stop you from pulling a gun.
Yet a third possibility is that you become the outlaw - drawing your legally concealed pistol, for instance, to settle a quarrel. In fact, count on that outcome here based on experience elsewhere.
Bruce Thompson, a professor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, sometimes doodles by plotting data. He e-mails me three charts he drew up. Dots stand in for the nation's metro areas. The higher on the chart they are, the higher the crime rate, according to FBI figures. Boxes enclose the dots for the metro areas from the six states without concealed-carry laws.
On charts plotting the violent crime rate and the murder rate, the dots appear scattershot. The boxed dots, however, hover near the bottom of the charts. In other words, metro areas without concealed-carry laws tend to boast lower violent crime rates than do metro areas with such laws.
But does one lead to the other? Or do residents just happen to abide by the law more in the metro areas where the toting of hidden guns is not permitted?
Well, a third chart, plotting the property crime rate, hints at a cause and effect. Again, the dots are scattered all over the place. But this time, the boxed dots are spread out just as evenly as the regular dots. In other words, metro areas with and without concealed-carry laws show no difference in property crime rates - suggesting that the residents are equally inclined to be law-abiding.
Thompson, a former Milwaukee School Board member, notes that his charts are not conclusive proof that a law permitting the carrying of concealed weapons will mean more violent crime. But they amount to one more reason why lawmakers trying to put yet more guns on the streets should exercise prudence and drop that push.
Gregory Stanford is a Journal Sentinel editorial writer and columnist. His e-mail address is gstanford@journalsentinel.com