USA Today
Friday, August 2, 1996
Page 3A

Study: Weapons laws deter crime
Fewer rapes, murders found where concealed guns legal

By Dennis Cauchon
USA TODAY
In a comprehensive study that may reshape the gun control
debate, researchers have found that letting people carry
concealed guns appears to sharply reduce murders, rapes and
other violent crimes.

The nationwide study found that violent crime fell after
states made it legal to carry concealed handguns:

     >Murder, down 8.5%
     >Rape, down 5%
     >Aggravated assault, down 7%

The University of Chicago study, obtained by USA TODAY,
is set to be released next Thursday.  But its impending
release has already sent shock waves through the gun control
debate because of the effect it may have on one of the most
controversial areas of gun law.

Since 1986, the number of states making it legal to carry
concealed weapons has grown from nine to 31.

The National Rifle Association has led this fight in state
legislatures, arguing that concealed weapons deter crime.

Gun control supporters counter that these laws cost lives
by increasing accidental deaths and impulsive murders.

The study analyzed FBI crime statistics in the nation's
3,054 counties from 1977 to 1992 to see if the introduction
of concealed-weapons laws had any effect on crime.

The results overwhelmingly supported the idea that these
laws deter violent crime.

The drop isn't primarily caused by people defending
themselves with guns, says John Loww, the study's author.
Rather, criminals seem to alter their behavior to avoid
the possibility of coming into contact with a victim with
a gun.

Concealed-weapons laws have drawbacks, too, the study found.
Auto theft and larceny increased.  Criminals shifted to
property offenses, in which contact with a victim is rare,
says Lott.

"The policy implications are undeniable: If you're interested
in reducing murder and rape, then letting law-abiding,
mentally competent citizens carry concealed weapons has a
positive impact," says Lott.

Gun control backer Josh Sugarman of the Violence Policy
Center blasted the study: "Anyone who argues that these laws
reduce crime either doesn't understand the nature of crime
or has a preset agenda."

Lott, who spent two years on the study, says he sent his
research to scholars who might disagree with him and made
changes to satisfy the critics.

David Kopel, a gun control scholar who did a smaller study
on the same issue, says, "Lott's study is so far ahead of all
previous studies that it makes them all worthless."