Archive for the ‘John J. Donohue III**’ tag
No to Conceal Carry for Illinois and Peoria
Here is what I just wrote to the Peoria Journal Star:
Dear PJ Star,
I am writing in response to a Forum letter published on June 20 titled Concealed-carry could save lives in Peoria, submitted by Chuck Emig, responding to a earlier Forum letter from John Longmire. Mr. Emig advocates a concealed/carry law for Peoria and for Illinois. Fair enough, but I wonder on what evidence Mr. Emig bases his support for conceal carry. He says, “If Mr. Longmire would have done some research before writing his letter, he would have seen that crime is down where they have concealed-carry.”
Well, if Mr. Emig had done some research beyond NRA talking points he would known that like every story this one has at least two sides. I have done a little research and I found this conclusion in a study published in the Stanford Law Review titled: Shooting Down the “More Guns Less Crime” Hypothesis “No longer can any
plausible case be made on statistical grounds that shall-issue laws are likely to
reduce crime for all or even most states.”
In another article titled The Latest Misfires in Support of the “More Guns, Less Crime” Hypothesis
In our initial article “Shooting Down the More Guns, Less Crime”Hypothesis1″ we reached two main conclusions: First, that there was no credible statistical evidence that the adoption of concealed-carry (or “shall issue”) laws reduced crime; and second, that the best, although admittedly quite imperfect, data suggested that the laws increased the costs of crime to the tune of $1 billion per year (which is a relatively small number given the total cost of FBI index crimes of roughly $114 billion per year).
Later, Ayres concludes, “We feel confident concluding that we have indeed shot down the more guns, less crime hypothesis.”
I am opposed to a conceal and carry law for Illinois (including Peoria) because more guns means more death, accidental and otherwise. More guns will not stop the drive by shootings and gas stations robberies. Many residents of the areas where these crime occurs want fewer guns on the street, not more.
I just wish that advocates for conceal carry laws would have the intellectual honesty to look at all the data, not just the studies that support their point of view. Maybe the media should look at some of this research as well, so that a reasonable and well informed debate on this issue could finally occur.
Comments welcome.
