Tradeoffs: Guns

This picture captures a beneficial side of allowing qualified citizens to carry concealed weapons that anti-gun groups either do not mention or sweep under the rug by claiming resisting with a gun is more likely to result in injury or death than not resisting with a gun.

As John Lott and others have shown, resisting with a gun is considerably safer than other alternatives.

The typical anti-gunner characterization of gun owners as gun nuts looking for an opportunity to shoot someone also is inaccurate. I would not shoot someone unless it was absolutely necessary to prevent the death or extremely serious injury of my family. Nor would other gun owners I know.

I strongly recommend John Lott's book "The Bias Against Guns" as an interesting and informative read. You will hear a lot of BS about Lott's method of analysis and results. Speaking as one who has used econometric techniques, and even taught them, I find the work of Lott and his colleagues well above average for the field. Moreover, I find the widely quoted critiques of his work, that I have read, biased and mistaken.