Note: I have done only minor updating of this page in recent years, so it is not a reliable guide to the current state of the controversy.
This page contains links to web pages relevant to the controversy over an article in the Journal of Legal Studies by John Lott and David Mustard, in which they offer statistical evidence that laws requiring states to issue concealed carry permits to ordinary citizens reduce some forms of crime.It was created and is maintained by David Friedman. My objective is to provide links to the original documents (the Lott and Mustard paper and, when and if they are webbed, published articles criticizing or defending it), to web pages critical of the article, and to responses and comments. If you are aware of relevant online material to which I do not have a link, please let me know.
The Lott and Mustard argument appears in an expanded form, along with responses to critics, in John Lott's recent book More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws (University of Chicago Press, 2000).
Critique by Stephen Teret and response by John Lott
Critique
by Daniel Webster and response
by Lott
A piece
by Webster and Ludwig. I think it's later than the one Lott
responded
to; I'm putting the link to it in because the link I used to
have to
the Webster piece no longer works.
HCI critique and response by Lott
Critique by Tim Lambert, response by Lott and reply by Lambert
A new paper on the subject by Plassman and Tideman, which uses a different statistical approach and finds a stronger effect on homicides than Lott and Mustard do.
More links to commentary on Lott's work on Tim Lambert's web site
A more recent paper by Dezhbakhsh and Rubin critiquing Lott's work.
A more recent paper by Ayers and Donohue critiquing Lott's work.
A response by Lott.
A response by Plassman and Whitley.
And a reresponse by Ayers and Donohue.
A recent entry in the Blog of Tim Lambert, a critic of Lott, defending Black and Nagin.
John Lott's Vita
D. Friedman's summary and critique of Black and Nagin's published critique of Lott and Mustard
Page of links relevant to gun control arguments from Tim Lambert's site
A recent piece describing and criticizing a GAO study often cited as showing how many lives could be saved by safer guns. It isn't really part of this controversy, but I thought people reading this page would be interested.