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Freedom Book of the Month
Email List Archive
Free-Market.Net's Freedom Book of the Month
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Edited by Sunni Maravillosa. To join or leave this and other
lists, click to: http://www.free-market.net/features/lists/
* August, 2003: "The Bias Against Guns," by John R Lott Jr
* New and notable
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Freedom Book of the Month for August, 2003:
"The Bias Against Guns"
by John R Lott Jr
Regnery Publishing 2003, hardcover, 349 pp.
ISBN: 0895261146
For those of you who may not already know it, I'm a "gun nut". I like
guns, I own guns, and my partner and I take our young children
shooting as often as we can. Hoppe's No. 9 may be the sexiest scent
a man can have about him.
I haven't always been a gunnie, though. Once upon a time, I was a
left-leaning, touchy-feely type who thought that guns were a major
source of evil and pain in the world. Then I started thinking about
the issues more critically, challenging what I'd heard on the nightly
news. I also started thinking about what I'd do if I were attacked by
someone. It wasn't too long after that that I learned how to shoot,
and got my first firearm, a twelve-gauge shotgun.
My point in divulging all this is to demonstrate that minds can be
changed on firearms issues, if the individual is willing to think
rationally about the evidence. Of course, individuals need sound
evidence in order to reach rational conclusions. The right to keep
and bear arms (RKBA) movement just got a potent infusion of that
evidence with John Lott's latest book, "The Bias Against Guns".
The title is a bit of a misnomer, in that it only reveals half of the
book's value. To be sure, "The Bias Against Guns" more than amply
demonstrates that many journalists let a bias against firearms
influence their writing and the coverage a given story gets. Lott
also investigates the effects of "safe" gun storage laws, gun show
laws, assault weapons bans, and similar laws on crime rates. Since
gunnies already know of the media's -- and the U.S. government's --
biases against responsible firearms possession and usage, they may
find the second half more informative, if also somewhat more
academic. (But, gunnies, don't neglect reading the first half,
because you may be surprised by some of the findings Lott reports.
For example, did you know that many so-called scientific studies on
"gun control" are commissioned by the media and cooked to yield a
pro-victim-disarmament outcome?)
Lott can't be easily dismissed as some loony right-wing kook, because
he's done his research -- and he's done it impeccably. He asks
penetrating questions, and, as an economist, knows how to do sound
research to answer them. He does this for many questions in "The Bias
Against Guns", reporting his research methods and statistical tests.
He then presents his findings in language that even mathophobes can
understand. Lott even explains what makes for good (i.e., scientific)
research.
Distilled down to its essences, "The Bias Against Guns" strongly
makes two points:
1. The more firearms are taken out of the hands of the law-abiding,
the more crime an area has. Gun-controlling laws kill more innocent
people than they protect.
2. There is a deliberate, determined effort by the U.S. government,
with the aid and blessing of the mainstream media, to marginalize
gun owners, and to vilify this country's proud heritage of the
individual's unalienable right to keep and bear arms.
The fact that Lott makes these points in a book which, except for
its title, could be read by all but the most rabid and unreasonable
anti-gun individuals is remarkable. When I first saw the book cover,
I cringed, thinking that the title doomed it to premature dismissal
by those who most need to read it. But perhaps the shock value will
prompt them to pick it up and read it. If that happens, "The Bias
Against Guns" could prod many individuals out of their
previously-unexamined anti-gun views. We can but hope.
Order "The Bias Against Guns" from Laissez Faire Books:
http://www.free-market.net/rd/237576349.html, $19.50
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New and notable
o "Government Creep," by Philip D Harvey
A well done, slim book that presents via fictionalized stories of
actual cases of state intrusion. Written by the president of an
adult-oriented business, he knows whereof he speaks.
Order "Government Creep" from Laissez Faire Books:
http://www.free-market.net/rd/979693691.html, $12.95
o "Diversity: The Invention of a Concept," by Peter Wood
Wood cuts through the shroud surrounding politically correct
diversity in this very engaging, highly readable book that dissects
the issues and ideologies of a sensitive topic. Informative on many
levels, at times laugh-out-loud funny too.
Order "Diversity" from Amazon.com:
http://www.free-market.net/rd/982473997.html, $17.47
Keep doing freedom,
Sunni Maravillosa
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