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Originally posted by mtsgsd
Here's a brief interview with Prof. John Lott:
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I've already dealt with the issue of Prof. Lott. If you want more information, then I will direct you to
http://whoismaryrosh.com, where you can read all about the good Professor for yourself.
This is from an excerpt hosted on that site:
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Excerpted from an April 18th Science magazine Editor's commentary:
Here is John Lott: ex-University of Chicago Law School, now at the American Enterprise Institute. His book More Guns, Less Crime claims that on 98% of the occasions in which citizens use guns defensively, the mere production of a weapon causes the criminal to desist. These data were allegedly based on some 2000 interviews conducted by Lott himself. But when pushed for the survey data, Lott gave a hauntingly familiar explanation: His hard drive had been destroyed in a computer crash. Apparently the dogs in this controversy eat everyone's homework.
Wait. It gets even funnier. As the debate over gun laws spilled over from the scholarly journals to the Internet, Lott was defended passionately by a persistent ally named Mary Rosh. She attacked Lott's academic critics, including John Donohue of Stanford Law School, claiming in one posting that Lott had been the "best professor I ever had." Alas for Lott and his case, Mary Rosh now turns out to be -- John Lott! The American Enterprise Institute has not yet followed the example Emory set with Bellesiles, though it might think about it.
Meanwhile, though, legislators in a number of states are still considering liberalizing concealed-weapon laws, and Lott's book plays a continuing role in the debate. That moves this story from high comedy to a troubling challenge in social policy that isn't funny at all. Death by shooting is a national public health problem. Sound social science, not cooked data, is what we need to work out the tough problems like the relationship between gun ownership and violent crime.
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Lott has admitted to using the Mary Rosh sockpuppet to defend his own work. Credibility? He don't need no stinking credibility!