Problems With The Washington & Huffington Post’s ‘More Guns, More Crime’ Claims

By John R Lott

More Guns Less Crime
More Guns Less Crime
Crime Research Prevention Center
Crime Research Prevention Center

Washington, DC –-(Ammoland.com)- Problems with the Washington Post’s and Huffington Post’s “more guns, more crime” claims

The media over the last couple of days has been pointing to a somewhat revised paper by Abhay Aneja, John J. Donohue III, and Alexandria Zhang1 that has been floating around in various forms since at least 2009.  While much the earlier versions of the paper remained unchanged, the authors add a few more years of data for some of their estimates.  On Friday, Christopher Ingraham in the Washington Post felt this “new research debunks a central thesis of the gun rights movement” of “More Guns, Less Crime” (see also this discussion in the Huffington Post).

There are many errors in Ingraham’s article.  For example, “Stanford law professor John Donohue and his colleagues have added another full decade to the analysis.”  Yet, the third edition of “More Guns, Less Crime” has data from 1977 to 2005.  Moody, Marvell, Zimmerman, and Alemante have a new paper earlier this year that looked at data from 1977 to 2006.  Gius (2014) looked at data up through 2009.  Zimmerman (2014) looks at crime data up through 2010.   Previously even in the Washington Post, Emily Badger’s misleading column also discussed an earlier version of Donohue’s paper with data through 2006 (7/29).

Take the big claim in the Aneja, Donohue, and Zhangi paper:

About Crime Research Prevention Center

The Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) is a research and education organization dedicated to conducting academic quality research on the relationship between laws regulating the ownership or use of guns, crime, and public safety; educating the public on the results of such research; and supporting other organizations, projects, and initiatives that are organized and operated for similar purposes. It has 501(C)(3) status, and does not accept donations from gun or ammunition makers or organizations such as the NRA. Visit: https://crimepreventionresearchcenter.org/

3 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
David: San Antonio

Just remember…the libs/dems think that we, who work, pay taxes and “legally vote are “stupid” and will fall for all their lies.

Outlaw

The shame of it David is many voters do. Just look at the mess $250 and a cell phone have gotten us into,

john Carr

They should take a glance at the crime stats here in WV. Almost everybody carries a concealed weapon and we have the lowest crime rate per capita in the country.